Bil Jackson

Bil Jackson is a professional classical clarinetist. He started his symphonic career at age 19 with the Honolulu Symphony in 1980 where he was principal clarinetist for two seasons. Jackson has worked with various performers in the orchestral and chamber setting including David Shifrin, Emanuel Ax, and the American String Quartet. He was the long time principal clarinetist of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in Denver, Colorado, United States, and served as professor of clarinet at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado. Mr. Jackson also serves on the faculty for the Aspen Music Festival and Colorado College Music Festival. In March 2011 Mr. Jackson was appointed to the faculty of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

The composer Dan Welcher composed his clarinet concerto for Mr. Jackson in 1989. Jackson premiered the piece with the Honolulu Symphony under the baton of Donald Johanos that September and later recorded it with the same orchestra. On April 10, 2009 Mr. Jackson performed the world premiere of a new work, Clarinet Concerto, written for him by the American composer Kevin Puts. This concerto was recently premiered at Aspen in the summer of 2010. The Aspen Music Festival recently commissioned Mr. Puts to compose a concerto for the cellist, Yo Yo Ma. Jackson also records for composer Bill Douglas with whom he recently recorded the Suite Cantando with Streve Dibner, bassoon.

Jackson has enjoyed solo performances with a number of American orchestras where he has become well known for his performances of the Copland Clarinet Concerto as well as the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, K.V. 622. Jackson first performed the Copland with the Honolulu Symphony in 1982. He has subsequently appeared as soloist with the Colorado Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony, and the Dallas Chamber Orchestra. Jackson is the only musician ever to win the International Clarinet Competition twice, and was a finalist in the Prague International Clarinet Competition.

In 1999, Jackson was engaged by Artistic Director David Shifrin to perform at Lincoln with the Lincoln Center Chamber Society and to tour throughout the United States with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.

Bil Jackson is the consummate festival player appearing with numerous of the top festivals all over the country. These include the Aspen Music Festival, where Jackson has been a steady performer since he was a teenager. Other highly rated festivals to engage Jackson over the years are the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Angel Fire, and the Alpenglow Festival. Further-a-field Jackson has been a regular performer at Chamber Music Northwest. He also has appeared at Chamber Music Sedona, and the Australian Chamber Music Festival.

Bil Jackson was a student of Robert Marcellus at Northwestern University. Jackson is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy where he won the Academy's concerto competition three times and was awarded the medal for overall musicianship.

Jackson designed a set of reed making equipment and techniques as part of SpeedReed, but he has since placed the project on hold due to time constraints. He is currently a Yamaha Artist and plays on a set of custom instruments, the Yamaha CSG series, which he personally helped design and test. His description of the instrument is summarized in the statement, "...the sublime ecstasy of perfect recognition." He also plays on Rico Reserve and Rico Reserve Classic Reeds, and he is a Rico artist.

References

• Biography at the University of Northern Colorado website
• Yamaha Artist Profile
• Jackson's Website
• Yamaha Signature Sounds Review