Join the Clarinet Sonata Commissioning Project!

Be a part of the creation of a major work for the clarinet!

Meet the artist

Bixby Kennedy

Admired for his “marvelous ringing tone” (Joseph Dalton, Albany Times Union) Bixby Kennedy is one of the most versatile clarinetists of his generation. He has performed concerti with orchestras, including the Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and New Haven Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Bixby has performed throughout the US and Europe in venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Kennedy Center, and Marlboro Music Festival.

As an orchestral musician, Bixby has performed with the MET Opera and NY Philharmonic in addition to regular engagements with the Albany and New Haven Symphony Orchestras. On period instruments, Bixby has performed classical repertoire on original and replica instruments throughout the US with Grand Harmonie Orchestra.

Bixby performs exclusively on Backun instruments.

Contribute

Every little bit helps

Meet the Composers recommendations on commissioning fees
Commissioning Music: A Basic Guide.

The Commission

The new Sonata for Clarinet and Piano will be a 22-minute, four-movement, cutting-edge piece for the instrument. This new sonata will incorporate new techniques and colors in the service of expressive, exhilarating music-making as only made possible by an artist of Kennedy’s abilities.

We need your help by contributing to the commission fees to create this work of art. A work of this scale is not accomplished “on the side.” Each new composition is a painstaking task that consumes a life for a time. That’s why we need your help to ensure the future of classical music, the clarinet, and its repertoire. All funds will contribute to the composer's total commission fees and expenses.

All donors will be thanked by name in the printed score.

“The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.”

— Benjamin Britten

Check back often for updates on the progress of the sonata.

An award-winning member of ASCAP and SCI, Wery’s compositions have been performed and recorded worldwide, including Sonata for Guitar Quartet, Dance Variations for Woodwind Quintet, The Mipingo Parables for solo clarinet, Four World Variants for Clarinet Quartet, and Sonata for Multiple Woodwinds and Piano. Wery’s 2013 String Quartet was the 2021 Grand Prize winner of the Classic Pure Vienna International Music Competition.

Read about the Sonata as it progresses. Check back often for blogs on each step of the composition.

Featured

Oct 24, 2024

What’s so funny?

Oct 24, 2024

The Scherzo of the Wery Clarinet Sonata presents a fanciful but typically romantic variant on the classical minuet and trio. It abandons the discrete, rounded binary forms of the traditional minuet and trio and creates a strong tempo relationship between the second theme of the minuet and the trio proper.

Oct 24, 2024

Mar 26, 2024

SEEING DOUBLE

Mar 26, 2024

Double tonguing is a technique used by many wind instruments to achieve rapid re-articulation—fast tongued notes.

Mar 26, 2024

Feb 17, 2024

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Feb 17, 2024

It takes a lot of time and coffee to be this nerdy.

Feb 17, 2024

Dec 20, 2023

Monsters, Bugs, and the Shape of Loud

Dec 20, 2023

An update on the clarinet sonata and an explanation of the energy calculator.

Dec 20, 2023

Jan 12, 2023

CHARTING THE COURSE

Jan 12, 2023

IThe next step was clear. Chart the energy flow in relationship to the phi points. In other words, plan the rising and falling energy and how it delineates the form.

Jan 12, 2023

Dec 16, 2022

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Dec 16, 2022

I needed a calculator that put all the structures in one place. It wasn’t in the app store. Yes, I checked! It’s just math. I could create a calculator in Microsoft Excel. Three weeks later I had it completed. Did I mention—I’m not good at math.

Dec 16, 2022

Nov 11, 2022

Step One: FORM

Nov 11, 2022

I spent decades as a college music theory teacher. In an attempt to get students to understand the importance of form to Classical and Romantic composers and, more importantly, to their audiences, I would often remind them that form is the first act of composition. At least it should be.

Nov 11, 2022