Michael Drapkin has enjoyed a career as a music performer, composer, arranger, educator, adjudicator, and has worked to
transform music higher education through his many music entrepreneurship conferences, seminars, lectures and
keynote speeches, cajoling our highly-trained conservatory graduates to use their performing talents to go after the 97%
of the concert-going audience that Maestro Leonard Slatkin has been quoted as saying is not interested in classical music. Following
the Wall Street adage of "eat what you kill," Drapkin is developing his own breakthrough group Anim� Winds in Austin, Texas, and will feature them
in a showcase he is running for South by Southwest in 2010.
As a clarinetist, Michael Drapkin was a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra,
as Associate Principal and Bass Clarinet and the New York City Opera Touring Company
and Lake George Opera Festival, as Principal Clarinet. He has spent summers playing
at Aspen and at Tanglewood as a Berkshire Music Center fellow, and was solo clarinetist
and Executive Director of Music Amici,
Rockland County, NY's oldest professional chamber music group and one of the finest
in the New York City area. He is currently founding member of the
Austin Clarinet Trio and Anim� Winds, bass clarinetist
with the Mid-Texas Symphony and is a member of and has
soloed with the Austin Symphonic Band
Mr. Drapkin is a graduate
of the Eastman School of Music where he studied with D. Stanley Hasty, toured Japan with
the Eastman Wind Ensemble under Donald Hunsberger,
and played Principal Clarinet in the Eastman Philharmonia under David Effron. He also
studied clarinet with Gary Gray, Charles Bay and Harold Wright.
He has performed with
the New Jersey Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Portland Symphony, the Long Island
Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic
and with conductors Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas, Neville Marriner,
Leonard Slatkin, Lucas Foss, Christopher Keene, Klaus Tennstedt, Frederick Fennell, and
many more celebrated orchestras and maestros.
Mr. Drapkin is widely known in the
bass clarinet world as author of Symphonic Repertoire for the Bass Clarinet Volumes One, Two and Three (published
by Northeastern Music Publications), which have
become standard literature amongst orchestral bass clarinetists worldwide. Volume Four: Transposed
Orchestra Parts for the Bass Clarinet, is currently in production.
Mr. Drapkin is the Founder and Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Conference On
Entrepreneurship in Music (PRCOME),
part of the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, and the successor to the Brevard Conference on Music
Entrepreneurship at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, which held its first critically-acclaimed and sold out
season in the Summer of 2006. PRCOME is dedicated to addressing the
oversupply of arts graduates in America and the lack of demand for their skills by teaching musicians
how to become entrepreneurs for the arts and create demand for what they do. He was also the Chair of the national Committee
on Career Development and Entrepreneurship for the College Music Society.
In recognition of his
groundbreaking work with BCOME, Mr. Drapkin was selected as a finalist for
The TenAwards in 2006.
The "Academy Awards of New York Business," the New York Ten Awards is an annual selection of ten companies
and individuals in the greater New York business community that display extraordinary leadership and innovation.
He is also in demand as a guest lecturer, soloist and for
master classes at schools ranging from Eastman, Juilliard, Northwestern and The University of Texas, and
was a member of the Board of Directors of Youth Education in the Arts. He is a
concert, jazz, orchestra and marching band music adjudicator/clinician,
a composer/arranger and has written, cowritten or contributed to 11 books across three fields.
Mr. Drapkin is a Selmer Performing Artist.
May 10, 2008Anim� Winds, Concert at the Gallery Lombardi in Austin, Texas.
June 4, 2008The Long Center, David Pertoff event at the Long Center in Austin, Texas.
June 8, 2008Austin Symphonic Band, Father's Day Concert at Zilker Park in Austin. Texas premiere of
Michael Drapkin's Suite of Old Yiddish Melodies with the composer on solo clarinet. YouTube video.
September 26, 2008Premiere of Elegy to the Memory of Lauren Hoffman, Performance of piece for solo clarinet at the 2008 National Conference of the College Music Society.
Michael Drapkin is an active performer in the Austin, Texas area with the Austin Clarinet Trio, which exclusively performs
Mr. Drapkin's arrangements and transcriptions for two clarinets and bass clarinet, and with
Anim� Winds - a dynamic woodwind quintet taking a non-traditional approach to musical presentation
and audience development, both groups he helped found. He also plays bass clarinet with the Mid-Texas Symphony,
a professional orchestra which performs in the New Braunfels and Seguin, Texas areas, and is a member of and has soloed with the
Austin Symphonic Band - the finest large ensemble of its kind in Austin and in the nation.
Before moving to Texas from New York, Mr. Drapkin was clarinetist and Executive Director with chamber music group Music Amici,
an ensemble founded in 1985 and the oldest professional chamber music group in Rockland
County, New York. Music Amici performs both in Rockland County and New York City, and
annually at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City.
Music Amici has recorded on labels Angel/EMI and New World Records, and has often appeared
live on WQXR, WNYC and NPR, and performed in Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall as part of Michael Drapkin's
fundraising concert benefitting Youth Education in the Arts. Many of Drapkin's performances with Music Amici
can be heard at http://www.drapkin.net/performances.html on this website.
Mr. Drapkin has performed as Concertmaster with Maestro
Charles Yassky's Spirit of America Silver Cornet Band, a professional group which
presents youth concerts in the New York City area, and also with his South Orangetown
Band and All Star Band. He was also the Concertmaster of
the Rockland County Concert Band in New York for five years.
He also periodically appears with
Mishulem's Klezmer Band, specializing in ethnic Yiddish wedding dance music.
He has previously held professional positions with:
The Honolulu Symphony, Assistant Principal Clarinet and Bass Clarinet
The New York City Opera Touring Company, Principal Clarinet
The Lake George Opera Festival, Principal Clarinet
He has also performed on both the clarinet and bass clarinet with the following ensembles:
New Jersey Symphony, New York City Ballet, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic,
The Goldman Band, Rochester Philharmonic, Ballet Hawaii Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony,
Virginia Opera Theatre, Berkshire Music Center Orchestra, Northeastern Pennsylvania
Philharmonic, Westfield Symphony, Chamber Opera Theatre of New York, Village Light Opera
Group, Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra, New York Lyric Opera, Steve Reich Ensemble,
others.
He has performed his Eastern European Set - Tarras:
Dovid'l Bazetst di Kallah, Dinicu: Tempest Hora(transcribed by Drapkin for clarinet) - was arranged specially for him
by band arranger Ron Combes of Reno, Nevada.
With John Candler, President and Bruce Murray, Dean at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina
Michael Drapkin is Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Conference on Music Entrepreneurship (PRCOME),
part of the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music in San Juan, and the successor to the Brevard Conference on Music Entrepreneurship (BCOME),
the first national conference on
entrepreneurship in music. A think tank with key speakers was held on July 16-17, 2005, and a
full sold-out conference was held on July 14-16 2006 at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, with a
$50,000 grant obtained from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
In addition to $100,000 in generous sponsorship by the Kauffman Foundation, these conferences were sponsored by the Brevard
Music Center, the College Music Society, the Music Entertainment Industry Educator's Association,
the American Federation of Musicians, the Executive Council of New York, Yamaha Corporation, with special
help from Chamber Music America and Polyphonic.org.
PRCOME seeks to address the
huge imbalance between the supply of performing artists and the lack of demand for
their skills by equipping performers, educators and industry professionals with skills in entrepreneurship
so that they may become the creators of new concerts and other arts activities at the
grass roots level - the largest and most underserved fine arts market in America.
Instead of performers graduating from performing arts schools and unrealistically
expecting to be handed a job in an almost non-existent market, PRCOME trains attendees to bring
new fine arts to an underserved public while gaining sustainable careers.
In recognition of his
groundbreaking work, Mr. Drapkin was selected as a finalist for
The TenAwards.
The "Academy Awards of New York Business," the New York Ten Awards is an annual selection of ten companies
and individuals in the greater New York business community that display extraordinary leadership and innovation.
In addition, Michael Drapkin has worked to influence the creation and adoption of Performance Entrepreneurialism Program (PEP)
curricula and instruction at conservatories and colleges of fine arts to teach
performers how to create demand for their abilities, in addition to their traditional
arts education.
You can view the Eastman and Juilliard PowerPoint presentations on the web.
You will need to be using a recent version of the Microsoft Internet Explorer web
browser on a PC:
Mr. Drapkin is an accredited Music Performance and Ensemble Adjudicator with YEA!'s United States
Scholastic Band Association (USSBA), and has judged music for the Musical Arts Conference and Cavalcade of Bands.
He has judged music at marching band shows in Texas, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut
and Pennsylvania. He has judged at individual shows, regionals and at state championships.
Mr. Drapkin has also conducted clinics and festival adjudication for
concert bands, string orchestras and jazz bands for Classic Festivals & Tours in Philadelphia,
Boston, Montreal and Quebec.
With clarinet students at Dumont High School in New Jersey
Mr. Drapkin is a frequent lecturer and guest instructor. Past engagements include:
The Eastman School of Music. Clarinet master class and guest lectures on Arts Leadership.
The Juilliard School of Music. Guest lecture on Arts Leadership.
Buffet/Vandoren Clarinet Choir Festival (Atlanta). Bass clarinet master class.
University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts. Keynote speaker.
University of Florida at Gainesville. Bass clarinet master class
Lamont High School, Lamont, Illinois. Lecture, demonstration, critique with their concert band;
with John Bruce Yeh, Assistant Principal Clarinetist of the Chicago Symphony.
[To arrange a lecture or master class, please email
[email protected]]
Symphonic Repertoire for the Bass Clarinet, Volume One Roncorp, Inc.; Cherry Hill, N.J.;
1979. This orchestral excerpt book for the bass clarinet has become
standard literature, and graces the music stand of virtually every
serious bass clarinetist worldwide. This well-known work is going into its
second printing with Roncorp.
Symphonic Repertoire for the Bass Clarinet, Volume Two Roncorp, Inc.; Cherry Hill,
N.J.; 2004. Includes works by Barber, Bartok, Copland, Dvorak, Mahler, Musorgsky/Ravel,
Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg, Schuman, Shostakovich, Strauss, Stravinsky,
and Walton.
Symphonic Repertoire for the Bass Clarinet, Volume Three. Roncorp, Inc.; Cherry Hill,
N.J.; 2006. Works of Barber, Bartok, Bloch, Copland, Dvorak, Franck, Holst,
Janacek, Mahler, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Respighi, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Strauss, Stravinsky and
Webern.
Saint-Saens: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, transcribed for clarinet and piano;
Roncorp, Inc.; Cherry Hill, N.J.; December, 2002. Premiered with orchestra by clarinetist John Bruce Yeh
of the Chicago Symphony with the Glenbrook Symphony at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.
It was premiered at the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium in the version for clarinet and piano
by clarinetist Bil Jackson of the Colorado Symphony.
Live Premiere
Performance December 18, 2002.
Verdi Trios Arranged for Two Clarinets and Bassoon: 'La donna e mobile,' 'Un di felice,
eterea,' 'Parigi, o cara'; Roncorp, Inc.; Cherry Hill, N.J.; January 1983
Tempest Hora
-
Wild Rumanian violin piece by Grigorich Dinicu transcribed by Michael Drapkin for clarinet and piano; this
live performance by Michael Drapkin on April 15, 2002 with concert band accompanyment by Ron Combes.
Der Rosenkavalier
- Introduction to the Strauss Opera Der Rosenkavalier for drum and bugle
corps with Bb horns. This arrangement was read by the eight time world champion
Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps.
on December 7, 2002 at their camp in New Jersey. Also arranged for full concert band.
Walking the Dog.Gershwin's popular piece from the movie Shall We Dance
arranged for solo clarinet and concert band.
In the Light
-
Led Zeppelin's classic hard rock work arranged for clarinet and string quartet.
The Last Waltz
-
Robbie Robinson's swan song for The Band, arranged for clarinet and string quartet.
Tocatta
- from Tocatta and Fugue in D minor, J.S. Bach. Arranged for solo
clarinet. Live performance by Michael Drapkin on November 24, 2002 at the Pearl River
Library in Rockland County, New York.
Each link followed by the
symbol connects to an MP3 file; performed by the Sibelius notation program on a Proteus/2
Orchestral sound module unless otherwise notated. Listening to these files requires a
broadband connection for speedy playback.
