Alexander Fiterstein
Clarinet
Profile
Alexander Fiterstein is one of the leading clarinetists of his generation. He was just named a 2009 winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. His other honors include a first prize at both the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition in Denmark and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions (YCA). Fiterstein has performed as soloist with orchestras such as Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Radio Orchestra, Polish Chamber Philharmonic, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, China National Symphony, KBS Symphony of South Korea, and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.
In recital, Mr. Fiterstein has appeared on the “Music at the Supreme Court” Series, at the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, 92nd Street Y, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Gardner Museum in Boston, the Vancouver Recital Society, the Louvre in Paris, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the Tel-Aviv Museum.
A member of Chamber Music Society II of Lincoln Center from 2004-2006, Mr. Fiterstein has also participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and toured with Musicians from Marlboro. Additional appearances include the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany, and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. He has performed chamber music with Daniel Barenboim; Mitsuko Uchida; Emanuel Ax; and the American, Borromeo, Daedalus, Fine Arts, Jerusalem, Mendelssohn and Muir string quartets. He has also appeared with Ensemble Wien-Berlin.
Mr. Fiterstein has worked with composers such as Corigliano and Golijov, and has had pieces written for him by Samuel Adler and Mason Bates. He performed the American premiere of Henrik Strindberg’s clarinet concerto Minne, and recently premiered a new clarinet trio by Paul Schoenfield, which he also recorded for the Naxos label. He appeared as principal clarinetist of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim and as guest principal with both the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
A graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and The Juilliard School, Mr. Fiterstein has studied with Charles Neidich and Eli Heifetz. He received awards from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation from 1991-2000. He was a first prize-winner of the Aviv Competitions in Israel, and a recipient of the Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award in Tokyo. He has been on the Concert Artist Faculty of Kean University, N.J., since 2005 and has given master classes at the Peabody Conservatory, Boston University and Tel-Aviv University.