Richard Hawkins - Clarinet

Richard Hawkins has been the Professor of Clarinet at the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory since 2001. He was for over a decade on the performance faculty at the Interlochen Arts Academy and has taught for such schools as the University of Southern California, DePaul and Indiana Universities. In 1992, he made his solo debut in the Kennedy Center with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra, performing four concerts of Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto. Since 1992, Richard has participated in over 50 concerto performances, including a recently featured National Public Radio (NPR) live performance of Artie Shaw's Concerto for Clarinet with the Hot Springs Music Festival Orchestra. Mr. Hawkins served on the faculty of the Hot Springs Festival from 1996-2007. Mr. Hawkins performed five seasons as principal clarinet with the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra and remains an active contemporary, chamber and orchestral musician performing regularly with the Cleveland Orchestra in Severance Hall, Blossom Festival and Europe. His students now hold prestigious positions in many orchestras worldwide.

Since 1995, Mr. Hawkins has been an artist representative and clinician with the G. LeBlanc Corporation performing on clarinets he assisted in design, the LeBlanc Opus II. As a sideline, he designs and crafts custom clarinet mouthpieces; his client roster ranges worldwide from members of the Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Opera/Symphony, MET Opera, Osaka, to the Scottish National and many others.

For over fifteen years, Richard Hawkins has provided clarinetists from all over the world with professional handcrafted and refinished clarinet mouthpieces. You can view more information at www.richardhawkinsmouthpiece.com.   Check out Richard's beautiful playing at http://www.richardhawkinsmouthpiece.com/soundclips.html.

Richard was one of the first high-profile players to adapt to Légère.   His mouthpieces work extremely well with our reeds.   He says:

The ability to reach for the clarinet and demonstrate on the instrument has always been a valuable tool for so many teachers and performers. At times, different climates and humidity levels prevent one from that immediate attention.  The Légère Reed not only solves this problem for teaching, it is also an outstanding chamber and orchestral reed. After performing on the reed almost solely for one year, I can recommend this product to any clarinetist, beginner to professional. My thanks to Guy Légère for his incredible insight and talents.
 
Richard Hawkins
Oberlin College Conservatory of Music
G. Leblanc Corporation/
Mouthpiece Maker