Dale Clevenger (July 2, 1940 – January 5, 2022) was an American musician who was the Principal Horn of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1966 until his retirement in June, 2013.
Strini, Tom "Clevenger the horn master provides tips aplenty," The Milwaukee Journal, January 16, 1983, page 7, Entertainment section. Retrieved November 8, 2010 Before joining the CSO, he was a member of
Leopold Stokowski's
American Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony of the Air directed by
Alfred Wallenstein. He was also principal horn of the
Kansas City Philharmonic.
Prior to his death, he taught horn at the
Jacobs School of Music in
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...
.
Musical career
He started playing trumpet at age 11 and switched to horn at age 13.
Clevenger's father was President of the Chattanooga Opera Association, and he was exposed to live orchestral music at an early age.
He attended
Chattanooga High School, commonly known as City High School, when the band program was under the leadership of
A.R. Casavant, a scholar of marching band history, inventor, and innovator credited with creating
Precision Drill. Clevinger's obituary relates that Casavant used to play him recordings of the Chicago Symphony during the school lunch hour.
Clevenger received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
,
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, in 1962.
Clevenger considered
Arnold Jacobs and
Adolph Herseth, former principal brass instrumentalists of the CSO, to be his
mentors.
Clevenger performed with many ensembles worldwide, including the
Berlin Philharmonic (under
Daniel Barenboim). He took part in many music festivals including the
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Florida Music Festival,
Sarasota,
Marrowstone Music Festival,
Bellingham,
Washington, and
Affinis Music Festival,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.
He won a
Grammy Award for "The
Antiphonal Music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
of
Gabrieli," which he recorded with members of the Chicago Symphony brass section, as well as the brass sections of the
Philadelphia Orchestra and the
Cleveland Orchestra.
His recording of
Mozart's horn concertos was named Record of the Year in
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
on the
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an label
Hungaroton.
He also was a featured soloist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Grammy-winning Strauss Wind Concertos album, on which he plays Strauss's first horn concerto, as well as Andante for horn and piano in C major with
Daniel Barenboim accompanying on piano.
In 2003, Clevenger premiered
John Williams' Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, a work written for him.
In addition to performing, Clevenger was an experienced conductor. He was the Music Director of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra from 1981 to 1995. He expanded his conducting career with numerous orchestras in North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, recently leading the Orquestra Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon with Daniel Barenboim as soloist.
Dale Clevenger was President of the Italian Brass Week and taught at
Roosevelt University during his time in Chicago. After retirement from the CSO in 2013, he also taught at the
Jacobs School of Music at
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...
.
Personal life and death
Clevenger married Alice Anne Render of
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...
, also a skilled hornist. The couple had two sons, Mac and Jesse. His wife died in 2011. He also had two children from his first marriage, Michael and Ami. Subsequently, he was married to Giovanna Grassi, an Italian woman, for nine years until his death. He died from complications of
Waldenström's macroglobulinemia at a hospital near his residence in Brescia on January 5, 2022, at the age of 81.
Reviews by music critics
Over the years, critics have written of his playing as being "satin smooth (1975)," as having "mellow radiance and gentle flow...despite a few inconsequential fluffs (1978)," and of his "pianissimo trills and daredevil octaves (1981)." He has also been said to have "an unfailing sense of direction in phrasing (1983)", "well drawn legato phrases" despite "regrettable lapses of intonation in the fast ornamental section (1984)" and "smooth control (1991)." In 2010, his horn solos received some negative reviews from music critics at ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' and the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'', with the latter describing his work as "unpredictable horn solos, some firm, others faltering.
Flaws in a performance of Mahler's 3rd Symphony on November 1, 2012, were cited in three separate reviews, with the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' calling his performance "saddening".
[ ]
Discography
* ''The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli'' (1968)
*: The Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Chicago Brass Ensembles
*: Richard Burgin, conductor
* ''Britten:
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings''
*: Robert Tear (tenor), Chicago Symphonic Orchestra
*:
Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor
* ''Mozart: 3rd Horn Concerto K 447'' (1985)
*: Dale Clevenger, horn
*:
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
*:
Claudio Abbado, conductor
* ''Mozart: Four Horn Concertos'' (1996)
*: Dale Clevenger, horn
*:
Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra
*: János Rolla, conductor
* ''Richard Strauss: Wind Concertos'' (2001)
*: Dale Clevenger, horn
*:
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
*:
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
* ''The Chicago Principal: First Chair Soloist Play Famous Concertos'' (2003)
*:
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
* ''Haydn Horn Concertos'' (2006)
*: Dale Clevenger, horn
*: Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra
*: János Rolla, conductor
* ''Richard & Franz Strauss: Horn Concertos'' (2006)
*: Steven Gross, horn
*: Philharmonia Orchestra of Bratislava
*: Dale Clevenger, conductor
References
External links
Faculty profile at Indiana University
*
*
by Bruce Duffie, October 16, 2003
Remembering Dale Clevenger by Frank Villella,
From the Archives' blog, January 6, 2022
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clevenger, Dale
1940 births
2022 deaths
Deaths from cancer in Lombardy
Deaths from lymphoma
American classical horn players
Musicians from Chicago
People from Winnetka, Illinois
Musicians from Chattanooga, Tennessee
Roosevelt University faculty
Classical musicians from Illinois
Classical musicians from Tennessee
Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni
Jacobs School of Music faculty