3/23/08

Harold Seletsky

Harold Seletsky is the clarinetist, composer and bandleader of The West End Klezmorim. He has composed music for films, commercials, opera, ballet, and has written jazz and Yiddish songs. Born in Brooklyn in 1927, he attended the High School of Performing Arts. At the age of 17 he apprenticed for 5 years with composer Josef Schmidt--a German emigree who had been a prize pupil of Alban Berg. Harold’s eclectic musical career includes a position as Eb clarinetist with the Houston Symphony under Leopold Stokowsky, klezmer clarinetist in the Catskill hotels during the 1950’s and award winning composer of concert and commercial music.


He has composed for films, television commercials, opera, ballet and has written jazz and Yiddish songs. His commercials for Eastern Airlines, Air France, Chevrolet and U.S. Steel won numerous awards as did his theme music for the long-running news program Issues and Answers.
Harold has performed with his clarinet onstage in the Broadway
production of Rags and in the Off-Broadway production of Hot
Klezmer, the latter winning him notice in the New York Times as [the show’s] “sine qua non clarinetist”. Most recently, his Klezmer Fantasy, a work for klezmer clarinet and string quartet, won first prize in a competition sponsored by the American Society for Jewish Music.

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, opus 3
Allegro
Adagio
Rondo



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