William “Bill” King changed my life for the better in August 2008 when he told me: “Buy a clarinet, take lessons, and play for me in a year.”
The world-class clarinetist gave me those marching orders at the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival at which he performs every August in the northwest Indiana city on Lake Michigan. Bill King, so you know, is also a clarinetist for the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra, Adjunct Professor of Clarinet at Hillsdale College, and Coordinator of the Woodwind Chamber Music at the University of Michigan School of Music.
Bill King, in short, is a large part of the clarinet scene, and he has truly inspired me over the years as Natalie and I have marveled at his marvelous performances at the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival.
I finally got up the nerve to approach Bill at the 2007 Festival and told him that I had tried and failed to master the clarinet as a kid and wanted to take it up again as an adult.
Bill told me in August 2007 just what he told me in August 2008.
And so, when I appeared at the 2008 Festival minus clarinet and lessons, he really got on me and said he would have the ghost of Benny Goodman haunt me if I did not appear at the 2009 Festival with clarinet in hand.
Chastened and challenged, I bought a used clarinet within days of the 2008 Festival, and found friends to get me started, and, when Bill King came back to Michigan City in 2009, I had me a horn and the ability to actually play some licks on the licorice stick. He said I was off to a good start, but said I needed to firm up my embouchure, or mouth position.
Bill has since sold me a new and improved mouthpiece, instructed me in the care and feeding of reeds, and put me in an insulated, waterproof carrying case for my clarinet.
Most importantly, he left me with these instructions: “Pick up that horn and play for at least 20 minutes every day no matter how bad you feel or if the Cubs are winning or losing.”
Bingo!
And best of all, Bill King and his clarinets (he never leaves home with just one) will be back in Michigan City for the 2011 Michigan City Music Festival. He will be featured on Friday, August 19 at 7:30 p.m. (CDT) when he joins Gabriel Schlaffer and Robert Auler in performing Mozart’s Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano.
Then on Sunday, August 21 at 3 p.m. (CDT), Bill King will lend his horn to Mozart’s amazing Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in concert with Zofia Glashauser, Gabriel Schlaffer, Rudolf Haken, and David Peshlakai. But Bill King is saving the best for last by joining Nic Orbovich, Wesley Baldwin, and Robert Auler in performing Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time later that afternoon. Composed and first performed in a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, Messiaen’s masterpiece was the audience’s number one favorite, by far!
The concert will be held always, at the 1st Presbyterian Church at 121 W. 9th Street in the Uptown Arts District of Michigan City. Admission is free, and you will freely give of your applause after you have heard my inspiration tickle his licorice stick.
For more information about the best chamber music festival anywhere and its amazing musicians like Bill King, visit: www.mccmf.org.