Gary Gorczyca enjoys a varied career of clarinet artistry. The Boston Globe praised him as having made “an altogether outstanding contribution” and “playing of spectacular agility and imagination.” He has appeared as a soloist with the Angelica International Festival, Boston University and New England Conservatory Wind Ensembles, Jordan Winds and twice with the Grammy Award-winning Boston Modern Orchestra Project and conductor Gil Rose.

 

In addition to being a founding member of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Mr. Gorczyca performs regularly with BMOP, VentiCordi, Boston Midsummer Opera, Odyssey Opera, and Improbable Beasts. Formerly a member of Boston Musica Viva and Harvard’s Fromm Players, he has also appeared with NEC’s First Monday Series, Collage New Music, Glissando, Callithumpian Consort, Firebird Ensemble, and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival.

After studies at New England Conservatory, Boston University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (graduating magna cum laude), Mr. Gorczyca won fellowships to attend the Norfolk Chamber and Contemporary Festivals where he performed with Joan Tower and received coachings from Yale Faculty, as well as the Tanglewood Music Center, where he received a Jackson Prize for outstanding musical achievement.

 

During this period, he also became a first call substitute with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops, working with conductors Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, David Robertson and John Williams; composers Elliott Carter and John Adams; and luminaries Jessye Norman, Chick Corea and “Blue” Lou Marini, among many others. He is honored to be on the soundtrack to Saving Private Ryan with John Williams conducting, as well as numerous other recordings including Bernard Rands’ Canti Trilogy, Lee Hyla’s Lives of the Saints, Marti Epstein’s Hypnagogia, and as a soloist on Elliott Schwartz’s Chamber Concerto.

 

A master clarinet technician, Mr. Gorczyca spent much of his time during the lockdown overhauling orphaned instruments and donating them, with the help of his teacher Michael Webster, who paid the cost of shipping, to Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico’s principal clarinetist Kathy Jones. These instruments are being distributed by her to Puerto Rico’s El Sistema, Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, and to other students in need. To date, close to 40 clarinets have found new homes free of charge.

 

Gary Gorczyca is a proud father of two, one of whom is an Eagle Scout and the other a Life Scout. He has led a high adventure hiking, canoeing and camping trip to the Alaska wilderness and volunteers for as many causes as possible. Mr. Gorczyca resides in historic Hingham, Massachusetts and performs community outreach concerts with Cohasset’s Rusty Skipper Band. His clarinet of choice is a 1964 Buffet R-13 Bb, “The Griff,” on permanent loan.