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Great Teachers/Great Players

Author: SecondTry
Date: 2020-11-09 19:29

After reading a recent thread here on Yehuda Gilad being better know for his teaching than playing I began to think about in which of 3 categories some of the world's best clarinet teachers, former and present, lie:

1) great player and teacher
2) more known for teaching than playing
3) more known for playing than teaching.

Leon Russianoff, like Gilad, was better known for his teaching. This is not to say that either wasn't a wonderful player--the truth is I don't know, and yet further, it's entirely possible that a virtuosic player might still be better known for their pedagogy.

Perhaps Stanley Drucker might be better known for his playing. Again, I don't know, and even if true, it might only be because his playing was so virtuosic that it overshadowed his teaching legacy: Charles Neidich and I suspect a host of other players (e.g. Mitchell Estrin) being wonderful examples of his ability to not simply demonstrate but convey clarinet concepts.

And maybe Kalmen Opperman was both; just as sure as I personally know first hand from some of his students how (they felt) he tended to be a more "one size fits all" teacher, insisting on double embouchure and other attributes, and who was both fiercely loyal and demanding (not necessarily true or a bad thing.)

Who makes your list and in which of these three categories would you stick them?

Is there a "Bob Spring" or "Jon Manasse" or "Harold Wright" type of award here to those few who do/did both great? Are these 3 players more one than the other, or dare I say, in some people's opinion, (gasp) neither?

Is there truth in the idea that those few who so quickly and innately developed clarinet skills at a young age and failed to suffer through the time honored "knee scraping" process the rest of us 99.99% did, might not be the best ones to explain to a student how to overcome particular clarinet obstacles?

Post Edited (2020-11-09 19:36)

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