Robert Marcellus Masterclasses

The Robert Marcellus Masterclasses are some of the most valuable web pages on the Internet, in my opinion. Robert Marcellus was the esteemed principal clarinet with the Cleveland Orchestra during the era of George Szell. He was also renowned as a teacher and spent many years as the clarinet professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music and then Northwestern University. During the summers of 1974-1987, he gave special masterclasses at Northwestern that were open to outsiders as well. This archive has 64 masterclasses with 180 hours of audio tracks recorded between 1977-1990. You will hear various players performing etudes & orchestral excerpts, concerts by guest professionals (Jazz clarinetist Ron Odrich is featured prominently), and commentary by clarinet colleagues of Marcellus. There are moments where Marcellus (who was virtually blind during much of this period) plays and sounds even better than he did in the orchestra—hard to believe but true! Throughout these classes, he offers commentary on the students’ performances and clarinet playing in general which are wonderful. This is a must for any clarinetist.