Top 5 Clarinet Artists in the World

The clarinet is a wooden wind instrument. The clarinet was often known as a classical music instrument, but today it is used in almost all musical genres. It is also an irreplaceable instrument for Turkish traditional and modern music. There are numerous talented clarinet artists in the world in the classical music genre and other genres. Here are 5 of them.  

Sabine Meyer 

Sabine Meyer is one of the greatest clarinetists of Germany and a widely renowned soloist in the world. She comes from a family of musicians, and her first teacher was her father. Meyer was one of the first woman members of the Berlin Philharmonics Orchestra. She is known for her solo works, especially the records she made for the EMI brand. But, she also played as a guest soloist in the world. She won ECHO Klassik Prize 8 times alongside other prestigious classical music awards. 

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Richard Stoltzman 

Richard Stoltzman is the most famous American clarinet artist in the world today. His unique style of playing provided him a worldwide reputation, and he played with more than a hundred orchestras as a soloist. Stoltzman won lots of music awards throughout his entire carrier; he is a two-time Grammy winner. A little trivia about Richard Stoltzman: his most famous performance is Debussy’s "Maid with the flaxen hair" because Windows used his version for the example media, so every Windows owner on the earth had his work in their computers at around the year 2010. He also has his compositions in the modern classical music genre.  

Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman or Benjamin David was a clarinet artist from America who gained himself the name ‘the king of swing’. Although he is known as a jazz clarinetist, he also played modern and classical pieces; with his interpretation of course. Goodman recorded some classical music pieces from Mozart and Weber in ‘Goodman Style’ in 1956, but it caused discontentment between traditionalists. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

Mustafa Kandıralı 

His real name is Mustafa Kadıoğlu, but he is known as Mustafa Kandıralı because he run away from his home in Kandıra and walked to Istanbul by foot when he was 13 years old. He has accompanied lots of critical names of Turkish classical music singers. He also played together legendary Louis Armstrong and gained worldwide recognition. Kandıralı contributed to Turkish music a lot with over 20 albums and countless tours he made. 

Hüsnü Şenlendirici 

Hüsnü Şenlendirici is the most famous clarinet artist in the world. Hüsnü Şenlendirici began playing the clarinet at the age of five. He started to study at Istanbul Musical Conservatory, but he never got a degree. After he left school, he began to work more actively in the music world. Even though his style is Turkish traditional music and oriental belly dance music, he also played different genres of music. Especially in pop music he played with lots of great singers of Turkey and gained popularity. He also played with jazz and funk bands both from his country and worldwide, so now he is the most known Turkish clarinet artist in the world. 

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