Monte Morgenstern

Monte Morgenstern has been an orchestral and chamber music performer for many years, performing with a variety of musical ensembles including the Orchestra of St. Lukes, New York City Ballet, Broadway musicals, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, Columbia Festival Orchestra, Greenwich Symphony, Springfield Symphony, the Washington Square Music Festival and many others. He has been the concertmaster of the Staten Island Winds since 2005, principal clarinetist of the Bronx Opera Orchestra and Orchestra of the Bronx since the 1970s, the Prelude to Performance Orchestra of the Martina Arroyo Foundation since 2014, and, in a different genre of music, of the Metal Gear in Concert orchestra in 2019.

 

His activities as a composer and arranger include works for wind instruments and other combinations, including many trios for clarinet, cello, and piano – a result of his longtime membership in an ensemble of that instrumentation. The premiere of his New Orleans Trio (for Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon), took place in October 2005 at a benefit concert in Teaneck, NJ for the victims of the Gulf Coast Hurricanes of 2005. In the fall of 2008, Mr. Morgenstern received a commission from the Teaneck Creek Conservancy with support from the Bergen County Division of Cultural Affairs for “The Flight of the Monarch Butterfly” which was premiered by Englewinds in its tenth-anniversary concert in Teaneck and later at the famous Trinity Church in New York City. Mr. Morgenstern is a founding member of the chamber music ensemble, Serio Divertimenti (flute, clarinet, cello, and piano); a group dedicated to playing music from the classics to a wide variety of contemporary music by living composers.

 

A longtime teacher in the tri-state area, Mr. Morgenstern has been a frequent adjudicator for the Connecticut Music Educators Association.

Monte is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. He has recorded for the Angel/EMI, Music Masters, Elektra/Nonesuch, and Deutsche Grammophon labels.