Anthony Taylor
Associate Professor of Clarinet, UNC Greensboro, Principal Clarinet, Winston-Salem Symphony, Second/E-flat Clarinet, Eastern Music Festival, and performs regularly as an extra with the North Carolina Symphony, on clarinet and bass clarinet. His E-flat clarinet performances command respect––not an easy thing to do on such an unfortunate instrument. One new project include developing a new two-clarinet duo with his UNCG Colleague Dr. Andy Hudson, and they believe that world domination through clarinet performance will soon within their grasp. Another continuing project of Taylor’s is his research which applies his background in Alexander Technique and his experience in university-level clarinet to the established findings in motor performance demonstrating that adopting an external focus (defined as placing attention on the effects of one’s movements rather than the body and the body’s movements themselves) and the ramifications of those findings for Alexander Technique practice and music education. He gave his first presentation on this topic for the 2018 Alexander Technique International Conference in Kyoto, Japan, in October 2018, and hopes to collaborate further on this topic with members of the Alexander and music education communities.
As a soloist, recent concerto performances include Donald Crockett’s recent Dance Concerto, for A Clarinet and Bass Clarinet, the Mozart Clarinet Concerto (on basset clarinet), Adams Gnarly Buttons, Martin Concerto for Seven Winds, and McAllister Black Dog. He has made two recordings with New Music Raleigh: the first focused on music of D.J. Sparr, and the second, on Brett William Dietz opera introspective Headcase. Taylor holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Florida State University, and Washington State University, and has studied with Steve Cohen, Ron Aufmann, Richard Hawkins, Frank Kowalsky, James Schoepflin, and Joseph Brooks.
According to youtube, Taylor is sort of famous. His Winston-Salem Symphony video, made on a moment’s notice and only for the purpose of reaching a regional audience, promoted performances of the Mozart clarinet concerto in 2011 but has had a long life since, with nearly 200,000 views. His favorite video performance, however, is of the 2012 Hot Springs Music Festival live outdoor performance of Eric Mandat’s Ritual and Black Swirls, with former student Anna Darnell.
Beyond his interests related to music and teaching, Anthony likes to spend time with his daughter Sylvia and his friends. He likes to cook, and occasionally records recipes that he likes in his recipe blog. He likes bad horror movies, the worse the better, and proudly owns his own DVD copy of Troll 2.
