Clarinet / Riffs and Refrains 8.9.08

"Basking in the superb phrasing and creamy tone of Chandra's clarinet, it was a musical moment that carried the night." —Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Bharat Chandra is a clarinetist whose earnest passion for music and live interaction with audiences has taken him across the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player.

After undergraduate work at Southern Methodist University, studying performance with Stephen Girko and ethics with Alastair Norcross, Chandra attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. There he became the first student of world renowned clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and had special opportunities to explore early jazz performance with Gunther Schuller and modern music with pianist Stephen Drury. Those experiences would inspire him to continually seek diversity in his musical life and to cherish the gifts of contemporary composers. Bharat graduated with a Master's degree from N.E.C., along with the Conservatory's highest individual honor, the Gunther Schuller Medal.

From Boston, he traveled to Miami where he joined the New World Symphony, a graduate fellowship program, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. It was there that Bharat found his personal voice coming into focus and where he was given seemingly constant exposure to a carousel of the most experienced and gifted musicians of our day. His performances in Miami frequently earned generous reviews, and Bharat was featured in special chamber music tours across the northeastern United States, and in Monte Carlo and Vienna. A critically acclaimed recording for CRI Records of the solo and chamber music of Dan Welcher concluded a highly successful fellowship in Miami, along with a specially requested encore performance of Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting.

Chandra began his professional career in 2001, serving as the Principal Clarinetist of the Florida West Coast Symphony, under the direction of Leif Bjaland, and as a member of the Florida Wind Quintet. He continues to hold those positions today. The Quintet is a resident ensemble of the FWCS, and in the spring of 2008 it presented the world premiere performance of David Maslanka’s Quintet No. 4 for Winds, which was commissioned for the group.

During the summer, Chandra serves as Principal Clarinetist with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, led by Maestra Marin Alsop. Sharing the Civic Auditorium with the extraordinary musicians of the Cabrillo Festival orchestra, with Maestra Alsop, and with the audiences in Santa Cruz is a singular honor for him.

Recent solo performances have taken Chandra from Sarasota to Connecticut and on a multi-city tour of England, after which he was featured on the cover of Winds magazine. A concerto for Bharat is currently being planned by the extraordinary composer—and past Festival guest composer—Stewart Wallace. 2008 marks Chandra’s first solo performance with the Cabrillo Festival.

Bharat Chandra is the son of the late poet G. S. Sharat Chandra, a two time Pulitzer Prize nominee from India, and of Jane Chandra, a schoolteacher of German-English descent. Chandra’s wife, Anne, is an accomplished violinist who is both a member of the orchestra in Sarasota and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. She is on leave from the Festival this summer after the recent birth of their daughter.