Dr. Lori Baruth is Professor of Music, Clarinet at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, where she joined the faculty in 2007. Dr. Baruth received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati (2010), her Master of Music degree from The Ohio State University (2004), and both her Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from The Ohio State University (1999) as a summa cum laude graduate. Her teachers have included Richie Hawley, Steve Cohen, James Pyne, and Dr. Donald McGinnis.

Dr. Baruth has performed as principal clarinet with the Huntington Symphony Orchestra, Cave Run Symphony Orchestra, Westerville Symphony Orchestra, the Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra, the Heisey Wind Ensemble, and the Opera Theater and Music Festival of Lucca Orchestra of Lucca, Italy. She was the guest artist at the Penn State University Clarinet Day in 2018 and the Eastern Plains Clarinet Celebration at Eastern New Mexico University in 2017. She was the Yamaha Artist Clarinet Clinician at the Music For All National Festival in 2018 and 2014 in Indianapolis, IN. She was the featured Yamaha Clarinet Artist at the 2016 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest, and presented a clinic on "Eurhythmics in the Private Studio."

She has served as adjudicator for the International Clarinet Association’s Research Competition, as well as the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition. Internationally, she has taught at the 2011 Festival Nacional de Música at the Escola de Música e Artes Cênicas da UFG in Goiañia, Brazil. She has performed in the Grandin Vocal Chamber Music Festival, and the MusicX Contemporary Music Festival. She has given recitals and masterclasses at universities in Goiañia and Florianopolis, Brazil.

Dr. Baruth is a Yamaha Performing Artist, performing on CSGII H clarinets, and is also a D'Addario Artist, performing on the Reserve X0 mouthpiece and Classic Reserve reeds.

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Clarinetist and conductor Charles Neidich has  gained worldwide recognition as one of the most mesmerizing virtuosos on his instrument. With a tone of hypnotic beauty and a dazzling  technique, Mr. Neidich has received unanimous accolades from critics and fellow musicians both in the United States and abroad; but it is  his musical intelligence in scores as diverse as Mozart and Elliott Carter that have earned for Mr. Neidich a unique place among clarinetists. In the words of The New Yorker, “He’s an artist of uncommon merit -- a master of his instrument and, beyond that, an interpreter who keeps listeners hanging on each phrase.”      

Mr. Neidich is the artistic director of the Wa Concert Series at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York, which he founded alongside his wife, clarinetist Ayako Oshima, in September 2017. This critically acclaimed concert series is inspired by the Japanese concept “wa”— meaning circle, but also harmony and completeness; each  performance is thus paired with visual arts and offers a variety of culinary delicacies prepared by Ayako Oshima.

In addition to performing as soloist, Mr. Neidich has in recent seasons, added conducting to his musical accomplishments. He has led the Cobb Symphony Orchestra and Georgia Symphony in performances of the Franck Symphony in D Minor and Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto (also playing the solo clarinet part).

In past seasons Mr. Neidich has appeared in recital and as guest soloist all over the world, and has been making his mark as a conductor. In wide demand as a soloist, Mr. Neidich has collaborated with some of the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Halle Staatsorchester of Germany, Orpheus, the St. Louis Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, San Diego Symphony, New City Chamber Orchestra of San Francisco, Athens Chamber Music Festival, Tafelmusik, the Juilliard, Guarneri, American, and Mendelssohn String Quartets and the Peabody Trio.

Mr. Neidich commands a repertoire of over 200 solo works, including pieces commissioned or inspired by him, as well as his own transcriptions of vocal and instrumental works. A noted exponent of 20th century music, he has premiered works by Milton Babbit, Elliott Carter, Edison Denisov, William Schumann, Ralph Shapey, Joan Tower, and other leading contemporary composers. With a growing discography to his credit, Mr. Neidich can be heard on the Chandos, Sony Classical, Sony Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Pantheon and Bridge labels. His recorded repertoire ranges from familiar works by Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, and Brahms, to lesser-known compositions by Danzi, Reicha, Rossini, and Hummel, as well as music by Elliott Carter, Gyorgy Kurtag, and other contemporary masters.

A native New Yorker of Russian and Greek descent, Charles Neidich had his first clarinet lessons with his father and his first piano lessons with his mother. Mr. Neidich’s early musical idols were Fritz Kreisler, pianist Artur Schnabel and other violinists and pianists, rather than clarinetists. However, the clarinet won out over time, and he pursued studies with the famed pedagogue Leon Russianoff. Although Mr. Neidich became quite active in music at an early age, he opted against attending a music conservatory in favor of academic studies at Yale University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Anthropology. In 1975 he became the first American to receive a Fulbright grant for study in the former Soviet Union, and he attended the Moscow Conservatory for three years where his teachers were Boris Dikov and Kirill Vinogradov.

In 1985 Mr. Neidich became the first clarinetist to win the Walter W. Naumburg Competition, which brought him to prominence as a soloist. He then taught at the Eastman School of Music and during that tenure joined the New York Woodwind Quintet, an ensemble with which he still performs. His European honors include a top prize at the 1982 Munich International Competition sponsored by the German television network ARD, and the Geneva and Paris International Competitions. Mr. Neidich has achieved recognition as a teacher in addition to his activities as a performer, and currently is a member of the artist faculties of The Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the Mannes College of Music. During the 1994-95 academic year he was a Visiting Professor at the Sibelius Academy in Finland where he taught, performed and conducted. Mr. Neidich is a long-time member of the renowned chamber ensemble Orpheus.

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Timothy Phillips is Professor of Clarinet at the John M. Long School of Music at Troy University in Troy, Alabama. Since joining the Troy University faculty in 2006, he founded Troy University Clarinet Day, which brings high school, college, and professional clarinetists together each spring at the John M. Long School of Music for performances and master classes. Timothy is also creator and host of a weekly program on Troy Public Radio WTSU called “Clarinet Corner,” and a Buffet Crampon, BG, and Vandoren Performing Artist. His teaching is featured on the PlayWind “app” developed by Buffet Crampon.

Timothy has served as President of the Higher Education Division of the Alabama Music Educators Association and he has performed at previous AMEA Conferences. He has served as Social Media Editor of the International Clarinet Association and has performed at numerous ICA ClarinetFest® conferences including those in: Lawrence, KS (2016), Baton Rouge, LA (2014), Assisi, Italy (2013), Los Angeles, CA (2011), Austin, TX, (2010), and Kansas City, MO (2008). He presented clarinet pedagogy sessions at ClarinetFest® 2021 (Virtual) and presented his paper, “The Longing Voice: Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen” at ClarinetFest® 2004 in College Park, Maryland. He also performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2017, the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors National Conference in Gainesville, Florida in 2011 and the College Music Society National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in 2008.

As soloist, he has performed with Concerto Avenna in Warsaw, Poland, University of Illinois Symphonic Band, University of Illinois Summer Band, and with the Troy University Symphony Band, Troy University Concert Chorale, Troy University Percussion Ensemble, and various high school bands in the Southeastern United States. In 2011, he premiered works as soloist with the International Clarinet Choir, organized by the Träumerei Clarinet Ensemble in New York City and with the Troy University Symphony Band in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada on their first-ever international tour. Timothy has performed as principal clarinetist of the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and he has performed with Sinfonia da Camera in Illinois.

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