MICHAEL DRAPKIN

Clarinet/Bass Clarinetist Michael Drapkin is considered one of the world\'s foremost experts on the bass clarinet. His series of orchestral excerpt books, Symphonic Repertoire for the Bass Clarinet, Volumes One, Two, Three and the upcoming Volume Four (Transposed Orchestra Parts for the Bass Clarinet), have been the gold standard for bass clarinet orchestral study worldwide for the last 34 years, and are now referenced as a source for most bass clarinet orchestra auditions.

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 performs regularly with fine chamber music groups as well as his Austin, Texas klezmer band, Yiddish Cowboys.

Mr. Drapkin is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he studied with acclaimed master clarinet teacher 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.

Drapkin ran the Brevard Conference on Music Entrepreneurship for two summers with help from the Kauffman Foundation, and is an active member of the College Music Society, where he chairs their Committee on Careers Outside the Academy.

In addition to his career as a symphony orchestra clarinetist and bass clarinetist, he has published numerous books and articles spanning three fields, was Chair of eCommerce Management at Columbia University, held leadership positions with firms ranging from startup to multinational firms and the Fortune 500. He has been commissioned to write for the New York Times, interviewed in numerous articles, and has been a frequent public speaker on subjects ranging from marketing to future trends in the economy, and has appeared on the radio on CBS Marketwatch and on television on CNBC, where he discussed the future of music on the Internet.

In spite of his busy schedule, Mr. Drapkin still finds time to give back to society as a guest lecturer, soloist, and gives master classes at music schools and institutions across the country. He is a concert, jazz, orchestra and marching band music adjudicator/clinician, composer and a prolific arranger.