Larry Combs (born December 31, 1939) is an American clarinetist and educator.

Early life and education

Combs was born in

South Charleston, West Virginia South Charleston is a city in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States. It is located to the west of Charleston. The population was 13,639 at the 2020 census. South Charleston was established in 1906, but not incorporated until 1917. The ...

. He received a bachelor of music degree with distinction as well as the Performer's Certificate in 1961 from the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

where he studied with

Stanley Hasty Donald Stanley Hasty(February 21, 1920 - June 22, 2011) was professor emeritus of clarinet at the Eastman School of Music. Hasty joined the Eastman faculty and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 1955. Before coming to Rochester, he served as ...

. He later studied with Leon Russianoff in New York from 1962-1965.

Career

Combs played clarinet with the

New Orleans Symphony Orchestra The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is an American orchestra based in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only full-time, professional orchestra in the Gulf South. The orchestra performs at the Orpheum Theater. The Louisiana Philharmonic O ...

, the

Montreal Symphony Orchestra The Montreal Symphony Orchestra (french: Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, or OSM) is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The orchestra’s home is the Montreal Symphony House at Place des Arts. It is the only orch ...

, and the

Santa Fe Opera Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the ''Opera Association of New Mexico'' in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby, oversaw the building of the first opera house on a newl ...

before joining the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenu ...

in 1974. He was appointed principal clarinet of the CSO by Sir Georg Solti in 1978. He has appeared as a soloist with the orchestra on many occasions. He retired from the CSO following the 2007–2008 season to spend more time teaching clarinet students at

DePaul University DePaul University is a private, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Ca ...

. He retired from DePaul in 2018. He is also a founding member of the

Chicago Chamber Musicians (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1986. He has performed the

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

Clarinet Trio A clarinet trio is a chamber ensemble that consists of a clarinet, a bowed string instrument and a piano, or a musical work for such an ensemble. The string instrument can be a cello, a viola, or a violin. Therefore, a clarinet trio can be ref ...

with Daniel Barenboim and cellist

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma ('' Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...

, and has appeared at the

Ravinia Festival Ravinia Festival is an outdoor music venue in Highland Park, Illinois. It hosts a series of outdoor concerts and performances every summer from June to September. The first orchestra to perform at Ravinia Festival was the New York Philharmonic unde ...

with its music director,

Christoph Eschenbach Christoph Eschenbach (; born 20 February 1940) is a German pianist and conductor. Early life Eschenbach was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland). His parents were Margarethe (née Jaross) and Heribert Ringmann. He was orphaned durin ...

. Other appearances have been with

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is an American organization dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music in New York City. It is the largest organization of its kind in the country for chamber music. CMS's home is ...

and the Smithsonian Chamber Players. + He is also a founding member of the

. Combs is also a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

aficionado. His Combs-Novak Sextet is one of the headliners at the 1999

Chicago Jazz Festival The Chicago Jazz Festival is an admission-free, four-day annual jazz festival in Chicago's Millennium Park. It is run by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and programmed with the assistance of Jazz Institute of Chicago during ...

; he cut an album with jazz

clarinetist This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet. Classical clarinetists * Laver Bariu * Ernest Ačkun * Luís Afonso * Cristiano Alves * Michel Arrignon * Dimitri Ashkenazy * Kinan Azmeh * Alexander Bader * Carl Baerma ...

Eddie Daniels Eddie Daniels (born October 19, 1941) is an American musician and composer. Although he is best known as a jazz clarinetist, he has also played saxophone and flute as well as classical music on clarinet. Early life, family and education Daniel ...

, called "Crossing the Line"; and the Chicago Reader's Ted Shen wrote that he is "a Benny Goodman-like chameleon who can execute breathtaking arabesques and add a touch of eloquence to the plainest phrase." He was a clinician for the G. Leblanc Company, which made the Opus II clarinets he helped to design, and the Larry Combs models of clarinet mouthpieces.

Personal life

Combs is married to Gail Williams, a

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

professor at Northwestern University and retired associate principal horn of the Chicago Symphony.

Awards and recognition

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance The Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance was awarded from 1959 to 2011. The award was discontinued in 2012 in a major overhaul of Grammy categories; since 2012, recordings in this category have fallen under the Best Small Ensemble Perfor ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

and Mozart Quintets, Chicago-Berlin Chamber Ensemble with Daniel Barenboim,

Dale Clevenger Dale Clevenger (July 2, 1940 – January 5, 2022) was an American musician who was the Principal Horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1966 until his retirement in June, 2013.

, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, and Hansjorg Schellenberger (

Erato Records Erato Records is a record label founded in 1953 as Disques Erato by Philippe Loury to promote French classical music. Loury was head of éditions musicales Costallat. His first releases in France were licensed from the Haydn Society of Boston, a ...

)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra) The Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra) was awarded from 1959 to 2011. From 1967 to 1971, and in 1987, the award was combined with the award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) and aw ...

* 2002: Richard Strauss's Duet-Concertino for Clarinet and Bassoon with David McGill; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Barenboim, conductor (

Teldec Teldec (Telefunken-Decca Schallplatten GmbH) is a German record label in Hamburg, Germany. Today the label is a property of Warner Music Group. History Teldec was a producer of (first) shellac and (later) vinyl records. The Teldec manufacturing ...

)

Discography

*"The Jazz Brothers", Riverside, 1960 (alto sax in the Mangione Brothers Sextet) *"Crossing the Line" with

*"Mozart: Music for Bassett Horns",

CBS Masterworks Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired by S ...

, 1986 (Grammy nominated album) *"

at 15" *

*"Larry Combs, Clarinet", Music of Rozsa, Rochberg, and

Schuller Schuller (or Schüller) is the surname of: * Ed Schuller, musician * Eugène Schueller, founder of L'Oréal * Tom Schueller * Christina Schuller, see '' People on Laguna Beach'' * George Schuller, musician * Gunther Schuller, musician * Hans Sch ...

, 2005 *"Orchestral Excerpts for Clarinet", 1994 *"Brahms, Scriabin, Prokofieff for Clarinet", 1995 *"The American Clarinet", Music of

Bernstein Bernstein is a common surname in the German language, meaning "amber" (literally "burn stone"). The name is used by both Germans and Jews, although it is most common among people of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. The German pronunciation is , but in E ...

, Copland, Gershwin, and

Gould Gould may refer to: People * Gould (name), a surname Places United States * Gould, Arkansas, a city * Gould, Colorado, an unincorporated community * Gould, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Gould, Oklahoma, a town * Gould, West Virginia, a ...

, 1995

References

External links

Chicago Symphony Orchestra official web siteWeb site of the Chicago Chamber Musicians
{{DEFAULTSORT:Combs, Larry American classical clarinetists American jazz clarinetists Grammy Award winners Musicians from West Virginia Living people DePaul University people 21st-century clarinetists Summit Records artists 1939 births