Clarinetist

Biography

Recently retired as Professor of Music at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, Michael Webster is Artistic Director of Houston Youth Symphony which has won over two dozen national awards since 2008 and appeared on the nationally distributed NPR program, “From the Top” in 2012. In June 2024, HYS gave an enthusiastically received performance for 1000 orchestra administrators at the annual convention of the League of American Orchestras at Jones Hall, home of the Houston Symphony. On July 4, HYS and Michael Webster were named 2024 Honored Artists of the American Prize, “limited to a very few who have shown sustained excellence.” For more detail about HYS, go to houstonyouthsymphony.org. 

Formerly Principal Clarinet with the Rochester Philharmonic for twenty years and Acting Principal with the San Francisco Symphony, he has appeared as soloist with many orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra with Aaron Copland and the Boston Pops with John Williams. For several years he was Aaron Copland's favorite interpreter of his Clarinet Concerto. Described by the Boston Globe as “a virtuoso of burgeoning prominence,” Webster has collaborated with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; the 92nd Street Y; the Tokyo, Cleveland, Muir, Ying, Leontóvych, Dover, Artaria, and Chester String Quartets; Da Camera, Context, and Musiqa in Houston; and artists such as Yo Yo Ma and Joshua Bell among many others. He has been associated with many of North America's finest festivals, including Marlboro, Santa Fe, Chamber Music West and Northwest, Norfolk, Angel Fire, Steamboat Springs, Sitka, Park City, Skaneateles, Maui, Bowdoin, La Musica di Asola, Orcas Island, Stratford (Ontario), Victoria (BC), and Domaine Forget (Quebec). Internationally, he has performed and taught in Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Europe, Japan, China, Australia, and New Zealand.

After earning BM, MM, and DMA degrees with Stanley Hasty at the Eastman School of Music, Webster succeeded his teacher as Principal Clarinet  of the Rochester Philharmonic in 1968. The same year, he was a winner of the Young Concert Artists International Competition and began his recital career at New York’s Town Hall with his eminent father Beveridge Webster as pianist. High Fidelity/Musical America placed his CRI recording of American clarinet music on its Best Recordings list and Artists International selected him for its Distinguished Artist Award.

Michael Webster served as Music Director of the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester, Founder and Music Director of Chamber Music Ann Arbor, and on the faculties of Eastman, NEC, and Boston University. He has also taught at the San Francisco Conservatory, the Yale Summer School at Norfolk, Aria International Academy, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Johannesen International School of the Arts, the Bowdoin Festival and Atlantic Music Festival in Maine, and the Texas Music Festival at the University of Houston. Webster was Music Director of the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Asian Youth Orchestra under Yehudi Menuhin, and guest conductor of several Boston-area orchestras before joining the University of Michigan faculty as Adjunct Professor of Conducting and Director of the Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra in 1993.

In demand as a clinician, Webster has presented master classes at such institutions as the Manhattan School of Music, Florida State University, University of Colorado at Boulder, Louisiana State University, Puerto Rico Conservatory (San Juan), University of Victoria (Wellington, New Zealand), Senzoku Gakuen (Tokyo, Japan), University of Washington, UMKC Conservatory of Music (Kansas City), University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and  Interlochen Arts Academy. Founding director of Clarinetopia, a residential seminar at Stony Brook and Michigan State Universities, he has also served as clarinet coach for the National Youth Orchestra Festival (Sarasota), the International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Banff, and the Orchestra of the Americas since 2005 (in Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic, Canada, Belgium, Estonia, Poland, and the U.S.). Since 2020, Orchestra of the Americas has establish a strong online presence with OAcademy, where Webster is lead clarinet faculty member.

With his wife, flutist Leone Buyse, and pianists Katherine Collier and Robert Moeling, the Webster Trio released Tour de France, World Wide Webster, and American Webster on Crystal Records. With pianist Chizuko Sawa, the Webster Trio Japan released Sonata Cho-Cho San on the Nami label and From Vienna to Budapest on Camerata. All these discs feature Webster's trio arrangements, which, along with his original compositions, are published by Theodore Presser, International Music Company, Schott, and G. Schirmer. Webster also appears on the Albany, Arabesque, Beauport, Bridge, Centaur, CRI, and New World labels. A Buffet-Crampon Artist-Clinician, he plays Buffet R-13 clarinets exclusively.