“The talk of the evening at the Sarasota Orchestra concert Friday was the breakout performance of Bharat Chandra as soloist in Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto. Normally performing in the midst of the orchestra as Principal Clarinet, Chandra stepped out front to prove that he really has some big-time talent. This time it was not lightning technique, but a profound artistry particularly in the slow singing first movement in which the real music was between the notes with full, fluid control of wide leaps packed with inner meaning.
Chandra is a great communicator in so many ways – with and without his clarinet – and this, too, was evident in the cadenza connecting the first and second movements. Every note was phrased for impact and as he slid into the jazzier movement, he bopped and bobbed on stage smiling and looking to his colleagues in the orchestra with joyful approval. There was an infectious sense of goodwill and good times, which, at the concerto’s conclusion, brought the audience to its feet with appreciation.”
-Gayle Williams, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
“Clarinet Soloist Breaks Out of the Pack”
Welcome to BharatChandra.com
Bharat Chandra is a clarinetist whose earnest passion for music and live interaction with audiences has taken him across the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player.
After undergraduate work at Southern Methodist University, studying clarinet performance with Stephen Girko and ethics with Alastair Norcross, Bharat attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. There he became the first student of world renowned clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and had special opportunities to explore early jazz performance with Gunther Schuller and modern music with pianist Stephen Drury. Those experiences would inspire him to continually seek diversity in his musical life and to cherish the gifts of contemporary composers. Bharat graduated with a Master's degree from N.E.C., along with the Conservatory's highest individual honor, the Gunther Schuller Medal.
From Boston, he traveled to Miami to join the New World Symphony, a graduate fellowship program, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. It was there that Bharat found his personal voice coming into focus and where he was given seemingly constant exposure to a carousel of the most experienced and gifted musicians of our day. His performances in Miami frequently earned generous reviews, and Bharat was featured in special chamber music tours across the northeastern United States, Monte Carlo, and Vienna. A critically acclaimed recording for CRI Records of the solo and chamber music of Dan Welcher concluded a highly successful fellowship in Miami, along with a specially requested encore performance of Aaron Copland's Concerto for Clarinet with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting.
Bharat began his professional career in Sarasota during 2001, serving as Principal Clarinetist of the Sarasota Orchestra, under the direction of Leif Bjaland, and as a member of the Sarasota Wind Quintet. He continues to hold those positions today. The Quintet is a resident ensemble of the S.O., and in the spring of 2008 it presented the world premiere performance of David Maslanka’s Quintet No. 4 for Winds, which was commissioned for the group.
During the summer, Bharat serves as Principal Clarinetist with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, led by Marin Alsop. In August of 2008, Bharat gave the U.S. premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage's clarinet concerto, Riffs and Refrains, with Alsop and the Festival Orchestra. His performance earned unanimous critical acclaim. The Festival is an experience which he holds especially dear. Sharing the Civic Center with those extraordinary musicians and with the audiences in Santa Cruz is a singular honor for him.
Other solo performances have taken him from Sarasota to Connecticut, and on a multi-city tour of England, after which he was featured on the cover of Winds magazine. In the fall of 2011, Bharat served as a Guest Principal Clarinet at the Sydney Opera House.
Bharat is the son of the late Indian poet G. S. Sharat Chandra, a Pulitzer Prize nominee for poetry and short fiction, and Jane Chandra, of German-English descent who is a school teacher and role model for his family. Bharat's two sisters, Shali Wade and Anji Chandra, are marketing and design professionals in their communities, and his wife, Anne, is an accomplished violinist and member of the Sarasota Orchestra. Anne and Bharat are the proud parents of two young girls, and are Founders of the KAETA Corporation which is now active in the Sarasota community.
Bharat Chandra played
Copland's Clarinet Concerto
in a way that was worthy
of Charles Neidich, Richard
Stoltzman, or just about
any other front-rank solo
clarinetist. Chandra's
superbly drawn out, intense
phrasing was refreshing
and his evocation of the
Stravinsky-ish elements
and perky jazz of the
finale was excellent.
-James Roos, Miami Herald
“Chandra's liquid phrasing is already a local legend...”
-Richard Storm
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
(Biography Under Construction)
“Mark Anthony's Riffs and Refrains brought festival orchestra clarinetist Bharat Chandra front and center as soloist for the U.S. premiere of this two-movement mini-concerto. Chandra's clear tone and clean technique graced the works jazzy, atonal phrases and lyrical gestures.”
-Phyllis Rosenblum
Santa Cruz Sentinel
A Place for Purely Positive Press:
“I was particularly taken with the Turnage and Adams works. Turnage's concerto ‘Riffs and Refrains’ featured spectacular clarinet playing by Cabrillo principal Bharat Chandra.”
-Songs and Schemas
“The provocative experience showcased remarkably assured, prismatic playing by clarinetist Bharat Chandra, who's teacher, Richard Stoltzman, was involved in the score's first performance.(Toro Takemitsu's Waves)”
-Tim Smith, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Bharat Chandra, a brilliant New World clarinetist, made the tricky “Dante Dances” seem child's play and in “Phaedra” found the ecstasy of line to match Jason Horowitz's violin and Joshua Nemiths's piano.
-Miami Herald
“An excellent clarinetist”
-San Jose Mercury News
“Warm tone and flawless execution”
-San Francisco Classical Voice