Alan Kay
Artist-in-Residence, Clarinet
Managing Director, Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra
alan.kay@stonybrook.edu
Praised by the New York Times for his “spellbinding” performances and “infectious enthusiasm and panache,” Alan R. Kay is Principal Clarinetist of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Principal Clarinet of New York’s Riverside Symphony and Little Orchestra Society. He is the recipient of the Classical Recording Foundation’s Samuel Sanders Award, the C.D. Jackson Award at Tanglewood, a Presidential Scholars Teacher Award, and a Young Concert Artists Award with Hexagon, featured in the prizewinning film, “Debut.”
Praised by the New York Times for his “spellbinding” performances and “infectious
enthusiasm and panache,” Alan R. Kay is Principal Clarinetist of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
and Principal Clarinet of New York’s Riverside Symphony and Little Orchestra Society. He
is the recipient of the Classical Recording Foundation’s Samuel Sanders Award, the
C.D. Jackson Award at Tanglewood, a Presidential Scholars Teacher Award, and a Young
Concert Artists Award with Hexagon, featured in the prizewinning film, “Debut.” A founding member of Windscape, Mr. Kay performs regularly at the Yellow Barn, Orlando (Holland), Bowdoin, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society Festivals, and the Cape May Music Festival. A frequent performer of the clarinet quintet canon, he has collaborated with the Orion, Calidore, Miró, Shanghai, Guarneri, Mendelssohn, Weinberg, Fine Arts, Chester and Colorado string quartets. He teaches at the Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard and Stony Brook University, where he also serves as Executive Director of the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. In 2023, anonymous donors established the Alan R. Kay Music Scholarship at The Juilliard School.
Mr. Kay has recorded with Hexagon, Windscape, the Sylvan Winds and Orpheus, whose 2016 recording with the late Wayne Shorter, “Emanon,” won “Best Jazz Instrumental Album” at the 61st Grammy Awards. Recent recordings include CDs of the works of Rudolf Escher and Hans Kox, and Michael Torke’s “Psalms and Canticles,” “TIME” and “Unseen.” He has served as a panelist for the Trapani, Italy and Rolduc, Holland competitions, as well as for Young Concert Artists, Concert Artists Guild, and the Fischoff Competition. Also a conductor, Mr. Kay studied conducting at Juilliard with the late Otto-Werner Mueller and has led ensembles at Juilliard, Stony Brook and in the New York City area.