American clarinetist, Stanley Drucker, was born in Brooklyn in 1929, and as a child prodigy, began studying clarinet at age 10, and entered Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at age 15. One year later at 16, he was recruited by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and a year later at 17, he joined the Busch Little Symphony, organized by Adolf Busch, the highly regarded German-Swiss musician and composer. Drucker then became principal clarinetist of the Buffalo Philharmonic at age 18. In 1960 at age 19, he moved for the last time to the New York Philharmonic where he was the orchestra’s youngest musician. He was often called ‘junior’ by his colleagues. Twelve years after joining The Philharmonic, he became their principal clarinetist.

During his tenure, he made an estimated 190 solo appearances and performed in 10,200 concerts, which is approximately 70% of the total number of their concerts since 1842. He also maintained an active solo career during this period. His final season with the Philharmonic was 2008-2009. The Guinness World Record awarded him ‘longest career as a clarinetist’ after his performance of Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto with the orchestra – “62 years, 7 months and 1 day as of June 4, 2009”. Mr. Drucker has the distinction of being one of the few living orchestral musicians whose biography appears in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

NOTE: Mr. Drucker died Monday, December 19, 2022. For a more detailed account of this wonderful musician’s life and career, please see The New York Times obituary, December 22, 2022

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Anne Akiko Meyers
Victoria Bond
Giuliano Carmignola
George Crumb
Misha Dichter
Simone Dinnerstein
Stanley Drucker
JoAnne Falletta
Renée Fleming
Richard Goode
Sean Hickey
Benjamin Hochman
Yo Yo Ma
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Itzhak Perlman
Eve Queler
Philippe Quint
Gerard Schwarz
Peter Serkin
Arnold Steinhardt
Benita Valente
André Watts