John Hixson, clarinet
John Hixson is a musician of renowned versatility who has performed extensively as soloist throughout North and Central America, Europe and Asia.
He was principal clarinet of NY's Jupiter Symphony for several seasons and was scheduled to appear as soloist with the orchestra at Lincoln Center just before its conductor, Jens Nygaard, sadly passed away and the orchestra disbanded.
An avid chamber musician, he has performed with artists such as Robert Mann, Lukas Foss, Jennifer Frautschi, Nina Lee, Hila Plittman, Yuri Hasegawa, Emi Ohi Resnick and Matthias Naegele.
Committed to contemporary music, he performed on numerous occasions with the Continuum Ensemble and has given tens of world premieres, including soloist in Yves Prin's Mobile 4b at MoMA, for which he was highly praised by The New York Times.
Passionate about creative scholarship, he was assistant professor to both pianist Jacob Lateiner, at his Juilliard Beethoven Seminar and to conductor and former NY Times critic Will Crutchfield, in his Juilliard Historical Performance Practice Seminar. He has coached with some of the greatest chamber music artists of the twentieth century, including Joel Krosnick, Samuel Rhodes and Felix Galimir.
In addition to his work as clarinetist, he has also been active as conductor, after studies with Jorma Panula, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Pierre Boulez. Among the orchestras and groups he has conducted are the Moscow Symphony, Verona Chamber Orchestra, Mikkeli City Symphony, Vaasa Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Columbia Sinfonietta and the Yonkers Philharmonic.
He also spent two seasons as the Musical Director of NY Theater Ballet for all touring productions and was assistant conductor, vocal coach and cembalist for Caramoor's production of Rossini's La Donna del Lago under Will Crutchfield, today's leading bel canto authority.
He has served as Musical Ambassador to Costa Rica, performing in a several week performance and teaching tour of the country.
Conductors he has performed with include Pierre Boulez, Leonard Slatkin, Alan Gilbert, Stanislaw Skrowacewski and Karl Anton Rickenbacher.
In 2003 he performed Pascal Dusapin's often-proclaimed 'impossible' solo clarinet work If, at the French Embassy in NY with luminaries such as Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Mstislav Rostropovich and Ned Rorem in attendance.
He was the founder and artistic director of STUDIO for New Music(NY) where he presented composer/performer forums with musicians such as Salvatore Sciarrino and Pascal Dusapin.
During that time he published his writings frequently, including interviews about contemporary music with composers such as Earle Browne, Milton Babbitt, John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen,
In 2007 he began what was to become a three-year classical music sabbatical to focus studies and subsequent performances on shakuhachi, the Japanese traditional flute.
2010 marks his official return to the life of a professional clarinetist, based now in Tokyo.
