Todd Levy

Principal, Franklyn Esenberg Clarinet Chair

Clarinet

Principal Clarinet of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and participant in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, four-time Grammy Award-winner Todd Levy has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival, with the Israel Philharmonic, and at the White House.  An active chamber musician, Mr. Levy has appeared with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, Ying, Miro and Miami string quartets; James Levine, Christoph Eschenbach, and Mitsuko Uchida.  He has also been a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival for four summers, and was a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Aspen Wind Quintet.

Also in demand as a Guest Principal Clarinetist with the top American orchestras, Mr. Levy has played Principal Clarinet with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and frequently for Seiji Ozawa and Riccardo Muti in Japan at the Tokyo Opera Nomori and the Mito Chamber Orchestra  An avid supporter of new music, he has performed world premiere concerti or chamber works by composers such as John Harbison, Joan Tower, Peter Schickele, Paquito D’Rivera, Morton Subotnick, and Marc Neikrug and performs on the new release of Marc Neikrug’s Through Roses chamber work with violinist Pinchas Zuckerman, actor John Rubenstein, and the composer conducting.

Mr. Levy’s new CD for Avie, Rhapsodie, featuring 20th Century classics for clarinet, was released in  November of 2016.  He has recorded the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas and Schumann pieces for Avie, and three educational book/CDs of clarinet competition works entitled the Clarinet Collection for G. Schirmer/Hal Leonard.  In addition, Mr. Levy has recorded and edited the new exclusive print editions/CDs of the Bernstein Clarinet Sonata and the Finzi Five Bagatelles for Boosey and Hawkes/Hal Leonard, and over 20 other orchestral and chamber music CDs on the Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, and Decca labels.  In 2020, he has helped to compile a new book for Leduc/Hal Leonard of 20th Century French works for clarinet and piano which will be published this year.  An avid supporter and Performing Artist for Selmer-Paris and Vandoren, Mr. Levy plays on Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces, and ligatures, and Selmer Signature clarinets.  He is also on the faculty of UW-Milwaukee, and at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

 

For a more complete biography, visit toddlevy.org.