New York based clarinetist ALLEN BLUSTINE is a member of the New York Chamber Soloists and is director of the award winning new music ensemble, Speculum Musicae.
His decades long career includes principal clarinetist with the Japan Philharmonic in the early 1970s, principal clarinetist with the Musica Aeterna orchestra at the Metropolitan Museum until it's demise in the mid-80s and he played principal clarinet at the American Ballet Theater during the 1988 - 1990 seasons. He has performed frequently with the New York Philharmonic and has also performed with the New York City Ballet Orchestra and has played with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
He has appeared at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the Geneva Festival, Festival Miami, the New York Philharmonic's 'Horizons' Festival and has performed at the Library of Congress.
A long time proponent of new music for the clarinet, Blustine has premiered well over 100 new solo and chamber works for clarinet including Pulitzer prize winner Donald Martino's 'Triple Concerto' and he gave the U.S. premiere of Elliott Carter's 'Gra' for solo clarinet. Works written for him include Milton Babbitt's 'My Ends Are My Beginnings', Pulitzer prize winner Wayne Peterson's 'Peregrenations' for solo clarinet and most recently, Pulitzer prize winner Mario Davidovsky's 'Synchronisms No. 12 for clarinet and electronic sounds'.
In addition, he is the general director of the North Country (New Hampshire) Chamber Players and the assistant artistic director of the Vermont Mozart Festival. He is also the associate director of the Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance at Mannes College of Music.
He has been on the faculty of Columbia University since 1983.