Eric Schultz premieres Armando Bayolo’s newest work, On Becoming Ungathered (Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra)
Armando Bayolo, On Becoming Ungathered
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
Eric Schultz, clarinet
Chris Hisey, conductor
Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestra
Born in 1973 in Santurce, Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, composer Armando Bayolo has been hailed for his “suggestive aural imagination” (El Nuevo Día) in works that are “full of lush ideas and a kind of fierce grandeur, (unfolding) with subtle, driving power” (The Washington Post).
Mr. Bayolo’s music is routinely performed throughout the world. He has received important commissions from the Aspen Music Festival, the South Jutlands Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Nacional de Venezuela, the Greater Connecticut Youth Symphony, the Western Piedmont Symphony, the National Gallery of Art, Washington Chorus, Washington Choral Arts Society, and the wind ensembles of San Jose State University, Rowan University, Montclair State University, The College of New Jersey, Hartwick College, Oregon State University, The University of Oregon, The Ohio State University, The University of Maryland, and The Eastman School of Music, among many others.
Mr. Bayolo is an “adventurous, imaginative and fiercely committed” (The Washington Post) advocate for contemporary music in American culture. He is the founder of the Great Noise Ensemble, a group he led to become the premiere contemporary music ensemble in Washington, D.C. and one of the most important new music ensembles in the U.S. His cello concerto, Orfei Mors and the cantata, Kaddish:Passio:Rothko, were each nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in music.
Mr. Bayolo’s music can be heard on the Sono Luminus, Innova, New Focus, and Great Noise labels and is published by his own imprint, Olibel Music and available through Murphy Music Press and his web site, www.armandobayolo.com.
Eric Schultz is an American clarinetist equally in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and interpreter of new music. He maintains an active concerto schedule performing with orchestras across the world and can be seen and heard from Netflix to National Public Radio. Hailed a “mastermind” in the Myrtle Beach Herald and a “pathfinder” by iconic American composer Valerie Coleman, Schultz was selected as a quarterfinalist for the 2025 GRAMMY® Music Educator of the Year Award.
Through bold collaborations with today’s most innovative composers, Schultz is a driving force in shaping the future of the clarinet. He has premiered over 50 groundbreaking solo and chamber works, many written for and dedicated to him, dramatically expanding the instrument’s repertoire and expressive range. Dubbed a “superstar muse” by celebrated composer Amanda Harberg, Schultz is known for his liquid, soulful tone quality and singular abilities on the instrument, including a five-octave range, limitless facility of technique, and improvisations that span many dialects. He has commissioned and/or premiered the music of Valerie Coleman, Leila Adu-Gilmore, Jonathan Bailey Holland, David Sanford, Mary Watkins, Liliya Ugay, Chiayu Hsu, Tony Solitro, Johanny Navarro, Armando Bayolo, Carlos Carrillo, Iván Enrique Rodríguez, and many more. Pulitzer-prize winning composer John Corigliano declared Schultz’s performance of his acclaimed clarinet concerto in New York City “a sensation” (BroadwayWorld), while critic Jeffrey Williams praised his “super-virtuosity” and described the performance as “an adrenaline rush, bursting with drama and relentless momentum” (NYCR).
As an educator, Schultz encourages an individualized, project-based and passion-fueled creative approach to music learning while advocating for living composers and expanding repertoire lists toward a more intentionally inclusive and relevant future model. He is known for his transformational masterclasses with recent residencies at the Yale School of Music, Conservatorio de Música Ástor Piazzolla in Buenos Aires, Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, New York University, California State University Fullerton, Juilliard, UMass, Rutgers, and more. Schultz currently serves as Associate Professor of Music at Coastal Carolina University, where he is coordinator of the woodwind area and director of the Center for Collaborative Research. As a founding faculty of the center, he coined the phrase and created The [REP] Project, a play on the words repertoire and representation. The project advocates for including a diversity of composers in collegiate music curricula by intensely focusing on a living American composer every year.
This year, Schultz released his debut solo album POLYGLOT on Navona Records, showcasing a collection of virtuosic new works written for him. I Care If You Listen of the American Composers Forum praised the album, highlighting a “keen sense of lyricism” and “uncommon sensitivity and precision of expression.” Schultz completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance at Stony Brook University. As a Buffet Crampon performing artist, he performs exclusively on Buffet Crampon clarinets. @ericschultzclarinet
