J. LAWRIE BLOOMClarinet/Bass Clarinet
J. Lawrie Bloom began studying piano at the age of four and clarinet at the age of nine. He continued studies at the Columbus Boychoir School, with which he toured the U.S., Canada, and Japan, singing and playing the clarinet. At that same time, he studied clarinet with Roger W. McKinney, later working with Anthony M. Gigliotti.
Lawrie has performed at the Ambler, Grand Teton, Ravinia, and Spoleto Festivals, and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. He toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has collaborated with the Chester, Chicago Symphony, and Mendelssohn String Quartets, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Rembrandt Ensemble, and members of the Ridge, Orion, and Vermeer string quartets. He has been heard many times in live concerts over the airwaves of WFMT in Chicago, and in live recital for the Australian Broadcast Company. In September of 1980, Sir Georg Solti invited Lawrie to join the CSO, in the position of clarinet and solo bass clarinet. Previously he had held similar appointments with the Phoenix Symphony, the orchestra of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Vancouver Symphony, and the Cincinnati Symphony.
Lawrie has been a featured soloist at several International Clarinet Society conferences. His recital on clarinet and bass clarinet at the 1994 convention drew a standing ovation from nearly five hundred clarinetists
from around the globe. January of 1995 saw him on the stage of Orchestra Hall performing Ian Krouse's Concerto for Bass Clarinet and Large Orchestra with the CSO, becoming the first performer to present a bass clarinet concerto with any major orchestra in the United States.
In 1986, Lawrie was named co-artistic director of the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival, which takes place annually in Easton, Maryland. That same year, he and his colleagues in the Chicago Symphony Winds were nominated for
a Grammy Award for their CBS Masterworks album, Mozart's Music for Bassett Horns.
Lawrie is an Assistant Professor in clarinet at Northwestern University. His former students perform and teach in orchestras and schools throughout this country. He presents many master classes each year.
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