Charles Neidich, clarinet (New York, NY) regularly appears as soloist and as collaborator in chamber music programs with ensembles including the Saint Louis Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Deutsches Philharmonic, National Symphony of Taiwan, and the Juilliard, Guarneri, Brentano, American, Mendelssohn, Carmina, Colorado, and Cavani String Quartets. He studied both piano and clarinet while growing up and after four years at Yale University where he majored in Anthropology, he attended the Moscow State Conservatory as the first recipient of a Fulbright grant to study in the Soviet Union and studied with clarinetist Boris Dikov and pianist Kirill Vinogradov. Known as a leader of period instrument performance practice (he is the founder of the period instrument wind ensemble, “Mozzafiato”) Charles was one of the first soloists to improvise cadenzas and ornament classical concertos. He has performed his restoration of the Mozart Concerto throughout the world both on modern and period instruments. Charles is also an ardent ambassador of new music and has premiered works by Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Edison Denisov, Helmut Lachenmann, William Schuman, Ralph Shapey, Joan Tower, Katia Tchemberdji, Vasilii Lobanov, and others. Recently, Charles has turned his attention to conducting, and has appeared with the Avanti chamber Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Helsinki, at the Båstad Festival in Sweden, the Kirishima Festival in Japan, with the New World and the San Diego Symphonies (in a triple role of conductor, soloist, and composer), and in Bulgaria with the Plovdiv State Philharmonic. He serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Queens College of the City University of New York, the Manhattan School, and the Mannes College of Music, and has held visiting positions at the Sibelius Academy in Finland, the Yale School of Music, and Michigan State University. With his wife, Ayako Oshima, he has published a book on the basics of clarinet technique for the Japanese publisher, TOA Ongaku inc. Last Spring, Charles was the recipient of the William Schuman Award given by the Juilliard School for outstanding performance and scholarship.