Clarinet
flute
SFCM Sends Woodwind Alumni Across the Country for Symphony Slots
August 8, 2022
Carey Bell
Departments
Courses Taught
Private Lessons
Studio Class
Education
BM, University of Michigan
Ensembles
San Francisco Symphony, Principal, 2007–Present
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, 2004–2010
San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Principal, 2001–2007
San Francisco Ballet, 2005 - 2007
Q&A
What is your hometown?
Eugene, OR
What are you passionate about outside of music?
Photography, Art, Gardening
Who were your major teachers?
Fred Ormand and Larry Combs (Clarinet); William Bolcom and Bright Sheng (Composition)
What is a favorite quote that you repeatedly tell students?
“If you make a mistake, no one dies.”
What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?
There were many, but an early defining moment was actually seeing a live performance of the great mime artist Marcel Marceau when I was a child. Even though it was not a musical performance, I was so enthralled and hypnotized by his abilities that I realized being a performer is a powerful and benevolent position in society. We musicians have the ability to not only entertain, but change peoples perspectives and even their lives.
What was a turning point in your career?
Winning my first audition for the principal clarinet position in the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in 1998 at age 23. Winning the principal clarinet position with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in 2001.
If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?
I’ve always had a great interest in counseling or therapy as a profession.
If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?
Brahms, Mozart, Stravinsky
From a music history perspective, what year and city are most important to you?
This is a question that has many answers in my experience. One answer that comes to mind is Munich, 1865. This was the premiere of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde which, in my opinion, is one of the most influential works in Western music.
What are your most important collaborations?
Nielsen Concerto with Herbert Blomstedt and San Francisco Symphony; Mozart Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452 with Mitsuko Uchida; Schubert Der Hirt auf dem Felsen with Laura Aiken and Michael Tilson Thomas
What is your unrealized project?
I basically stopped composing once I started working as a professional clarinetist. It would be wonderful to get back to composition, but I find I do not have enough time to create my own musical space when I am performing everybody else’s works.
What makes a concert experience unique?
Live music is one of the most important experiences we can have as a society. To gather together as a group to listen to and be affected by music of all kinds is an essential and ancient human activity. Music, in my opinion, goes deeper into our consciousness than other art forms. We all have music that we consider “ours”, even if we didn’t make it ourselves, and to experience the actual soundwaves being produced in the moment can be elemental and cathartic.
Biography
Carey Bell joined the San Francisco Symphony as Principal Clarinet in 2007 and holds the William R. & Gretchen B. Kimball Chair. He has performed as a soloist with the orchestra on 7 different occasions, most recently in Esa-Pekka Salonen’s kinema, with the composer on the podium. Previously he has performed Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto with Herbert Blomstedt, Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie and Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs with Michael Tilson Thomas, and Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto on three occasions with Jaap van Zweden, Bernard Labadie, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Cultivating a career in the Bay Area for over two decades, Mr. Bell has performed with numerous local orchestras and chamber ensembles. He is a former member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and has participated in several other local contemporary music groups. His summer engagements have included the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Oregon Bach Festival, and Telluride Chamber Music Festival. Notable chamber performances include collaboration with violist Scott St. John and pianist Jonathan Biss for San Francisco Performances, and Lukas Foss’s Echoi with Jeremy Denk, Peter Wyrick, and Jack van Geem, as part of the San Francisco Symphony’s 2012 American Mavericks tour, culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.
Mr. Bell was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, where he developed his musical skills as a pianist, singer, and composer. After taking up clarinet at age 12, he studied for several years with Cindi Bartels. He received several honors as a young clarinetist, and he wrote a symphonic overture performed by the Oregon Symphony in 1992. For his undergraduate work, he studied with Fred Ormand at the University of Michigan and pursued a composition degree with William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Michael Daugherty, and Evan Chambers. As a student, he participated in summer fellowships at Tanglewood and Music Academy in Santa Barbara. After graduating he continued his clarinet studies with Larry Combs, then principal clarinet of the Chicago Symphony.