Richie Hawley is a versatile and critically acclaimed artist who ranks among the most distinguished clarinetists of his generation. Mr. Hawley was appointed Principal Clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1994 at the age of 23, only two years after graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music. He has since enjoyed a rewarding and multifaceted career as an orchestral clarinetist, recitalist, chamber musician, teacher and clinician. From 1994-2011, as the Principal Clarinet of the CSO, he impressed audiences around the world with a wide-ranging talent that blended virtuosity and the velvety, sonorous tone that has become his trademark. The Cincinnati Enquirer has praised him for the “seamless flowing tone so many clarinetists long for and few can achieve.” Many of the 60+ recordings by the CSO and Cincinnati Pops during his tenure have featured major solos of the clarinet repertoire. American Record Guide hailed Hawley’s “gorgeous” clarinet solo in the CSO’s Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 as “the crowning achievement” of the recording by Maestro Jesus Lopez-Cobos.
In 2011 Mr. Hawley became the Professor of Clarinet at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston. During the summer season, he serves as the teaching and performing clarinet artist at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, one of the premiere summer festivals for exceptionally talented musicians from around the world.
Mr. Hawley is dedicated to performing chamber music, and appears regularly as a chamber musician and recitalist throughout the United States and abroad. His upcoming chamber music activities include performances at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, the Da Camera of Houston’s chamber music series and numerous performance and recording projects with the Rogue Ensemble. He made his debut at the Marlboro Music Festival in the summers of 1999 and 2000 and performed with the legendary “Musicians from Marlboro” for the Festival’s gala 50th anniversary tour at Carnegie Hall.
Mr. Hawley has garnered awards as both performer and educator. He won the Coleman-Barstow prize at the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition in 1988 with Trio con Brio, and that same year was one of five musicians to receive the Gold Medal as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts from Ronald Reagan in a ceremony at the White House. He has received the Léni Fé Bland Foundation Career Grant twice, and he was awarded the 2009 Glover Award for Outstanding Teacher of the Year at UC’s College Conservatory of Music.
Mr. Hawley made his orchestral solo debut at 13, performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as the winner of its student stars competition. At 14 he performed on one of the New York Philharmonic’s young person’s subscription concerts as a winner of the Philharmonic’s national talent search competition. While a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Hawley appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
A Buffet-Crampon artist, Mr. Hawley performs on the Tosca model of clarinet. He is also a D’Addario Woodwinds Performing Artist and Clinician, and plays exclusively on the Reserve Classic reeds and mouthpieces which he helped to develop.