Michael Collins

Michael Collins ranks among the leading clarinetists of his era. He has performed as principal clarinet with the Philharmonia Orchestra and London Sinfonietta, participated in the Nash Ensemble, and maintained an active career as soloist and chamber musician. His programs encompass a wide span of British repertoire by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Britten, while also covering substantial portions of the European canon from Mozart, Brahms, and Bartók. Collins has earned particular recognition for enlarging the instrument’s literature through numerous premieres and commissions of new pieces by living composers. In 2021 he released La Clarinette Parisienne with pianist Noriko Ogawa.

Born on January 27, 1962, in Isleworth, West London, Collins entered the Royal College of Music as a teenager, studying principally with David Hamilton and Thea King. At sixteen he won the woodwind category of the 1978 BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. The year 1981 proved decisive: he joined both the London Sinfonietta and the Nash Ensemble. His Carnegie Hall debut followed in 1982, and the next year he made his first commercial recording with the Nash Ensemble, A Centenary Tribute, devoted to Lennox Berkeley’s chamber music. In 1984 he set down three volumes of Malcolm Arnold’s chamber works with the same group and made his Proms debut, performing Thea Musgrave’s Clarinet Concerto to strong acclaim.

Collins joined the faculty of the Royal College of Music in 1985 and became principal clarinet of the Philharmonia Orchestra two years later. He established the chamber group London Winds in 1988, touring extensively with the ensemble across Europe and North America. In 1995 he resigned both the Philharmonia post and his teaching position to pursue independent work. Since then he has appeared regularly with leading artists such as Martha Argerich, Mikhail Pletnev, and Joshua Bell. Among the contemporary scores he has introduced are John Adams’ Gnarly Buttons, Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Concerto, and Elena Kats-Chernin’s Ornamental Air. In 2007 the Royal Philharmonic Society honored him as Instrumentalist of the Year for his sustained commitment to expanding the clarinet repertoire. He returned to Adams’ Gnarly Buttons in 2009 at the Mostly Mozart Festival, the composer conducting.

Collins has also taken up the baton, serving as principal conductor of the City of London Sinfonia from 2010 to 2018. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Philharmonia, the BBC Symphony, and the London Mozart Players; the latter organization appointed him artistic director in residence for the 2021–2023 seasons. His 2021 album La Clarinette Parisienne, recorded with Noriko Ogawa, includes Sérgio Pires in Poulenc’s Sonata for Two Clarinets.