Eugene clarinetist Michael Anderson racks up the gigs and two new CDs

By Fred Crafts
The Register-Guard

Maybe not all of those in the youth audience were enjoying Igor Stravinsky's testy "Rite of Spring," but one studious 13-year-old boy was definitely enraptured.

"I thought, `Wow! I love this music. I want to be involved somehow in music-making like this,' " says Michael Anderson, recalling a Portland concert more than three decades ago.

The Oregon Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jacques Singer, was revving up Stravinsky's powerful rhythmic engine, and on the screen above the stage was a slide projection of Picasso's "Guernica," inspired by the Spanish Civil War and the Nazi bombing of a Basque village in 1937.

"At that moment - the juxtaposition of perhaps the greatest piece of all modern music and all its `primitive' and complex rhythms and dissonant harmonies, with Picasso's great work of Cubist art that reaches great depths of despair and protest against war - I was forever hooked on the powerful expression of great 20th century art and music," the 49-year-old Eugene clarinetist says.

Anderson is a mainstay with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, the Oregon Bach Festival orchestra and the Oregon Festival of American Music's American Symphonia, among others.

His prowess on the clarinet can be heard on two new CDs playing on radio stations in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and elsewhere:

• "Tomas Svoboda: Chamber Works with Clarinet, Vol. 1" (North Pacific Music NPM LD 016), recorded at Eugene's Shedd Institute for the Performing Arts, in which Anderson plays works composed for him by Svoboda, his mentor.

• "Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4 and Wayfarer Songs," (Dorian DOR-90315), in a chamber ensemble, conducted by Kenneth Slowik, consists of musicians from the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Santa Fe Pro Musica, of which Anderson is a member.

The same ensembles will release another CD, Mahler's "Das Lied Von der Errde (The Song of the Earth)," in October.

Quietly, almost nonchalantly, Anderson has been building a reputation, and a resume, to die for.

He regularly tours with the New Mexico-based Santa Fe Pro Musica and often performs in Portland with the Oregon Ballet Theatre Orchestra and the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.

In the past he has also played with the Oregon Coast, Ernest Bloch, Peter Britt and Sunriver music festivals, the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra and the William Hall Chorale of Los Angeles.

Yet he prefers to live and work - as artistic administrator of the Oregon Bach Festival - in Eugene, where he was recently married to Oregon Mozart Players' concertmaster Alice Blankenship.

Content to play primarily in ensembles, Anderson declined opportunities to pursue a career as a guest soloist.

"I like what I'm doing. I enjoy the variety. I like playing new music, and old music, and chamber music, orchestras, ballets, opera - the whole gamut. Being a soloist might be too much of the same thing," he says.

"Michael has distinguished himself as one of the leading clarinetists in the country," says clarinetist David Shifrin, artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

"He has a beautiful sound, a formidable technique and wonderful communicative ability on the instrument," Shifrin says.

American Symphonia conductor James Paul says Anderson "has a sense about the music. He makes it colorful, interesting. He just plays beautifully."

Smithsonian Chamber Players conductor Kenneth Slowik says Anderson is "a terrifically versatile musician who has mastered clarinets of all sizes."

Eugene Symphony conductor Giancarlo Guerrero calls Anderson "one of the orchestra's greatest assets" and points out that "when it comes to clarinet repertoire, there's no limit to what I can program for him."

As if to prove that point, Thomas O'Connor, artistic director of the Santa Fe Pro Musica, has programmed Aaron Copland's famed Clarinet Concerto several times.

"I've never heard another player get more from the first movement, which for me is the most beautiful and moving part of the work," O'Connor says. "Mike can bring you to tears with the beauty of his playing and his understanding of the meaning of the music."

His former professor, John McManus, recalls that Anderson's solo in Ottorino Respighi's "Pines of Rome" was "breathtaking."

"By that, I mean I held my breath wondering if he could keep the smooth legato of his jumps to the higher notes and maintain the flow of that beautiful melody. He did, of course," McManus says. "The feeling of smoothness, the beautiful phrasing, the perfect control of his dynamics and rich tone quality left the audience in awe."

Born in the Portland suburb of Oak Grove, Anderson took up the clarinet in the sixth grade.

After he graduated from Rex Putnam High School, he attended the University of Oregon for a term before entering Portland State University.

There he studied with Svoboda, who would play a decisive role in his life.

"I learned a lot from him about how music was put together and how composers thought," Anderson says.

After graduating from PSU in 1977, he earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon in 1979 and pursued clarinet studies with Shifrin at the University of Southern California (1984-85). Since then, he has undertaken doctoral work at the UO, where he has also taught (as well as at Willamette University and Lane Community College).

On clarinet, his role models include Catherine Palladino ("a very beautiful, centered, well-crafted tone''), McManus ("so clear''), Shifrin ("always an inspiration'') and Benny Goodman ("very pure'').

Several composers besides Svoboda have written works for Anderson. One is Hal Owen of Eugene, who recalls that Anderson's performance of his Clarinet Concerto was "brilliant."

Anderson is not only a superb player, but also a skilled arts administrator. His kindly, thoughtful manner wins him praise from his boss at the Oregon Bach Festival, executive director Royce Saltzman.

"He is a major asset to the OBF because of his extensive experience and knowledge about his field, i.e. repertoire, personnel and organization. I consistently rely on him for ideas related to programming and scheduling," Saltzman says.

Adds Bach Festival artistic director Helmuth Rilling, "He is a musician who enjoys to communicate with the other groups of the orchestra and feels always responsible for the whole of the music we are making. For me, personally, it is always a joy to collaborate with him."

McManus describes Anderson as having "a delightful personality, is congenial and works well with conductors and with his fellow musicians. I have never seen him angry, confused, haughty or trying to outdo his colleagues. He is a true gentleman in every way."

Conductor James Paul so enjoys Anderson's company that he considers him "a soul mate."

Although Anderson is receiving compliments on his new CDs, he points out he didn't record them for personal gain.

"We do it for the music," he says, employing the plural pronoun. "I don't want to just play a piece once and let it go. We record it and hope that other people enjoy it and want to play it on their program."

For Anderson, recording the Mahler CD helps keep alive a significant composition.

The Svoboda CD was done to champion the work of a deserving composer and friend.

"I believe in the music. I believe in the composer. I think it's music people should hear," he says. "All these pieces on the Svoboda CD should be part of the repertoire of all classical clarinetists everywhere."