Alexander Fiterstein

Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein is recognized for playing that combines flawless technique and consummate musicianship with graceful phrasing and a warm soulful tone. Recipient of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and a first prize winner of the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet competition (Denmark), Mr. Fiterstein is considered one of today’s most exceptional clarinet players and has performed in recital and with prestigious orchestras and chamber music ensembles throughout the world.

As a soloist he has appeared with the Belgrade and Tokyo Philharmonics, Czech, Israel and Vienna Chamber Orchestras, Danish National Radio Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestra of St. Luke's, among others. He has appeared in recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the National Gallery of Art and Kennedy Center in Washington, the Louvre in Paris, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Tel Aviv Museum in Tel Aviv, and NYC's 92nd Street Y. A dedicated performer of chamber music, Mr. Fiterstein has performed at San Francisco Performances and the Celebrity Series of Boston (with pianist Marc André Hamelin and violinist Anthony Marwood), Music at Menlo, and regularly appears at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. This season he collaborates with the Shanghai and Dover string quartets and members of the St. Lawrence string quartet, and will play at Dumbarton Concerts in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Fiterstein has made several recordings for Naxos and Bridge Records. His most recent is a performance of Sean Hickey's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra with the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony released on the Naxos label in June 2013.

Mr. Fiterstein was born in Belarus and at the age of two, immigrated with his family to Israel. A graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Juilliard School, Mr. Fiterstein is a first prize winner of the “Aviv” competition in Israel; a winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions; and is the recipient of the Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award (Tokyo) and numerous awards from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. Mr. Fiterstein is a clarinet professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.