Derek Bermel

His hands-on experience with music of cultures around the world has become part of the fabric and force of Bermel's compositional language. Having studied ethnomusicology and orchestration in Jerusalem with Andre Hajdu, he later traveled to Bulgaria to study the Thracian folk style, Dublin to study uillean pipes, and Ghana to study the Lobi xylophone. Well-versed in the classical and jazz repertoire on clarinet and piano, he trained at Yale University and the University of Michigan, and later in Amsterdam, studying composition with William Albright, Louis Andriessen, William Bolcom, Michael Tenzer, and Henri Dutilleux.

Bermel's clarinet playing has been hailed by the New York Times as "brilliant" and "first rate." He premiered his own critically acclaimed clarinet concerto, "Voices," with the American Composers Orchestra in Carnegie Hall (Tan Dun conducting), and revisited it with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the BBC Symphony in London, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (John Adams conducting). He has also premiered dozens of new works for clarinet in appearances as soloist throughout the U.S. and Europe, including recitals in New York, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Detroit, Jerusalem, The Hague, and Paris, and radio broadcasts on the BBC (London), NCRV (Amsterdam), and WQXR (New York). Other recent concerto appearances include Bolcom's Concerto for Clarinet with the Lexington (KY) Philharmonic and the Greensboro (NC) Symphony, André Hajdu's klezmer concerto "Jewish Rhapsody" with the Westchester Philharmonic (NY), and the Copland Concerto at the Crested Butte Music Festival (CO). Bermel is also the founding clarinetist of Music from Copland House, the resident ensemble of the creative center for American Music.

As an educator, Bermel is the founding director of the Making Score program of the New York Youth Symphony, a seminar of 25 young composers which meets once a month at ASCAP with guest lecturers ranging from Meredith Monk to Steve Reich, Vijay Iyer, and Stephen Sondheim. Next year he begins a new initiative to foster lyrical/musical collaborations in the Brooklyn public schools. He has led master classes and held residencies throughout the U.S. and abroad at schools including Yale University, Rotterdam Conservatorium, (Netherlands), University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Longy School of Music, Peabody School of Music, Columbia University, Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Universita Federal da Bahia (Brazil), RISDI, LeMoyne College, University of Western Michigan (Kalamazoo), University of Chicago, University of Texas (Austin), UCLA, University of North Carolina (Greensboro), Eastern Carolina University, Northwestern University, Aspen School of Music, Bowdoin Festival of Music, Duquesne University, and the Tanglewood Music Center.