Biography
Dale Clevenger served nearly five decades as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal hornist while also pursuing an active schedule of solo recordings and teaching commitments. Born July 2, 1940, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he grew up in a household headed by the president of the city’s opera association and encountered live classical music from an early age. He began playing trumpet at eleven, moved to the horn two years later, and benefited from the robust band program at Chattanooga High School. After earning his degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1962, he studied further with Chicago Symphony tubist Arnold Jacobs and trumpeter Adolph Herseth. His first professional appointments took him to the American Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony of the Air under Alfred Wallenstein, and the Kansas City Philharmonic before he assumed the Chicago Symphony’s principal horn chair in 1966.
While with the orchestra he appeared as a guest soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim and performed regularly at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Florida Music Festival in Sarasota, and Japan’s Affinis Music Festival. For several years he also taught horn at Roosevelt University in Chicago. His first classical solo album, issued by Deutsche Grammophon in 1988, presented Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings with the Chicago Symphony led by Carlo Maria Giulini, a conductor with whom he developed a close working relationship. Earlier he had contributed to pop sessions by Joe Morello, Curtis Mayfield, The Manhattans, and Noel Pointer. In 2003 he gave the world premiere of John Williams’ Horn Concerto, a work written expressly for him. Grammy Awards recognized his participation in The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli, recorded with brass players from the Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cleveland orchestras, and a Chicago Symphony collection of Strauss wind concertos that featured Barenboim both as conductor and pianist. In all, Clevenger appeared on more than sixty recordings. He stepped down from the Chicago Symphony in 2013 and joined the faculty of Indiana University. Following a battle with cancer, he died in Brescia, Italy, on January 5, 2022.
While with the orchestra he appeared as a guest soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim and performed regularly at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Florida Music Festival in Sarasota, and Japan’s Affinis Music Festival. For several years he also taught horn at Roosevelt University in Chicago. His first classical solo album, issued by Deutsche Grammophon in 1988, presented Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings with the Chicago Symphony led by Carlo Maria Giulini, a conductor with whom he developed a close working relationship. Earlier he had contributed to pop sessions by Joe Morello, Curtis Mayfield, The Manhattans, and Noel Pointer. In 2003 he gave the world premiere of John Williams’ Horn Concerto, a work written expressly for him. Grammy Awards recognized his participation in The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli, recorded with brass players from the Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cleveland orchestras, and a Chicago Symphony collection of Strauss wind concertos that featured Barenboim both as conductor and pianist. In all, Clevenger appeared on more than sixty recordings. He stepped down from the Chicago Symphony in 2013 and joined the faculty of Indiana University. Following a battle with cancer, he died in Brescia, Italy, on January 5, 2022.
Albums
