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Dr. Tod Kerstetter |
Dr. Kerstetter’s recent significant performances include a solo appearance at the 2004 convention of the International Clarinet Association in Washington, DC and a solo recital at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in August, 2004. In 2005, he was one of the first clarinetists to perform David Maslanka’s Four Desert Songs, a work for solo clarinet and wind ensemble. This composition was commissioned by a consortium of university bands and wind ensembles around the U.S., including the K-State Symphony Band under the direction of Dr. Frank Tracz. Dr. Kerstetter performed this piece again at the 2006 Kansas Music Educators Association (KMEA) convention in Wichita and at the 2006 national convention of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) in Salt Lake City. In the August, 2006 Dr. Kerstetter made a duet appearance at the International Clarinet Association convention in Atlanta with clarinetist Jeff Pelischek from Hutchinson.
His international performing experience includes serving as Principal Clarinet of the American Wind Symphony on a tour of northern Europe, as a member of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria, and as a member of the Classical Music Festival Orchestra in Eisenstadt, Austria. During the 1988-89 concert season, Dr. Kerstetter served as Principal Clarinetist of the Filarmónica del Bajío of Guanajuato, Mexico, and he has also performed as a member of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Spoleto, Italy. In the spring of 2006, Dr. Kerstetter was featured as a soloist on the K-State Symphony Band’s tour of Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji.
Dr. Kerstetter is also active as an arranger and editor. His edition of Howard Hanson’s Fantasy for Clarinet is available through Carl Fischer. Editions of two of Johann Melchior Molter’s concertos for E-flat clarinet (originally D clarinet) are published by Prairie Dawg Press of Manhattan, Kansas. Arrangements published by Prairie Dawg Press include Heinrich Baermann’s (formerly thought to be Richard Wagner’s) Adagio for solo clarinet and clarinet choir and Franz Strauss’ Nocturno for solo horn and wind ensemble.
Dr. Kerstetter’s recordings include Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire and Ellen Zwilich’s Passages with the University of Georgia Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Life’s Work with the Greenville, SC jazz combo “Greg Gardner Group,” and Break Out! by Oberlin College composer Lewis Nielson. He also appears as clarinetist and bass clarinetist with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra on Harvest Home, a CD by fiddle virtuoso (and former K-State student) Jay Ungar, which includes Ungar’s most popular original tune Ashokan Farewell.
