Complete Biography
Dr. Jun Qian is the director of the Cyber Single Reed Academy in Highland Village, Texas, the conductor of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Clarinet Choir, and the principal clarinetist of the Waco Symphony. He has enjoyed great success as an educator and musician.
Qian won first prize in the International Clarinet Association’s Orchestral Excerpts Competition and third prize in its Young Artist Solo Competition in 1997--the first artist in the history of the ICA to receive prizes in both competitions in the same year. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2001, performing Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 with the Asian American Elite Orchestra.
At the Academy, he is currently training elite pre-college students and young professionals at universities worldwide via live and online clarinet and saxophone lessons, classes, and coaching sessions. He is also interested in doing research and teaching middle school students who might have ADD and ADHD symptoms.
His high school students have won many honors, positions, and prizes. These include the Minnesota Orchestra’s concerto competition; International Clarinet Association competitions; first chairs in the Texas Music Educators Association’s 6A All-State Symphonic Band and 6A All-State Philharmonic Orchestra; the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra; 6A high school bands in Lewisville, Plano, Allen, Coppell, and Frisco Independent School Districts; and featured soloist on NPR’s “From the Top” radio show.
Dr. Qian was a full-time clarinet professor at St. Olaf College and Baylor University for over 13 years. His college students won both Grand Prizes in the 2015 and 2016 International Clarinet Association Orchestral Excerpts Competitions and have been selected for study at major festivals and graduate schools. As a result, he has received excellent external peer reviews from International Clarinet Association leaders.
Other faculty appointments have included Nazareth College, Houghton College, New York State University at Fredonia, Eastman School of Music (music theory), Shanghai Conservatory of Music (chamber music), and the Round Top International Music Festival. Dr. Qian has given master classes in France, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Canada, China, and the United States.
As an endorsed artist for both Selmer (France) and Légère (Canada), Qian has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Eastman Chamber Orchestra, the Pueblo (CO) Symphony Orchestra, the Baylor Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Philharmonic, the Xiamen Philharmonic, and the Shengyang Opera Orchestra. He was the first to introduce Chinese audiences to several Western clarinet solos in full orchestral versions, among these Donato Lovreglio’s La Traviata Fantasy and the concertos of Aaron Copland and Malcolm Arnold. National and international appearances as principal and principal guest clarinetist include the Eastman Wind Ensemble’s tours of Asia in 2000 and 2004, the Central Wisconsin Symphony, the North Carolina Festival Orchestra’s European tour, the Kent-Blossom Music Festival (student guest principal with The Cleveland Orchestra), the National Orchestra Institute (USA), the American Wind Symphony, and the Binghamton Philharmonic. He also took second prize in the Texas Young Artists’ Competition and first prize in the Baylor Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Qian was the principal clarinetist of the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the latter under the direction of Mark Scatterday and Donald Hunsberger from 1999 to 2004.
Qian was a featured performer at the Kyoto International Performing Arts Festival in Japan, the Shanghai Time Square Concert Series in China, the Taipei National Concert Hall Recital Series in Taiwan, the Selmer Paris Concert Series in France, the College Music Society International Conference in South Korea, and the International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest conferences in Los Angeles, Orlando (FL), and Assisi, Italy. His chamber music recitals have been heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” (U.S.) with the Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet and the Round Top Festival Institute’s faculty chamber groups.
As a recording artist, Dr. Qian collects, performs, records, and commissions new music for clarinet influenced by Asian Culture and Literature (his East Meets West Recording Project). The commissioned works, written by well-known composers such as Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Shih-Hui Chen, Justin Merritt, and Bright Sheng, explore the confluence of Chinese cultural elements and Western art music. Collectively, they have gleaned an impressive list of international accolades and accomplishments. The release of his first recording in the U.S, East Meets West – Clarinet Music by Chinese Composers (Albany Records, Troy 1377, 2012), represents the culmination of the first major phase of this work. The International Clarinet Association's Clarinet magazine describes his second recording of the series, East Meets West II (Albany Records, Troy 1528), as showcasing " . . .beautifully executed performances of new and important music linking two fertile musical cultures . . . . His technique is very fine, and his tonal flexibility simulating the Chinese wind instrument sound world is always first-rate." The third recording in the series, West Meets East (Albany Records, Troy 1681), was reviewed by the same magazine: "[The CD] offers many interesting moments.., and showcases his superb ability as a musician."
Qian’s CD recording, Première Rhapsodie (1998), and DVD Playing the Clarinet (2004) were released under the Nanjing Shine Horn label. He also served as a music producer and soloist for Steven Leitz's music theory book for college music majors, The Complete Musician (second edition), published by Oxford University Press.
Jun Qian holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Clarinet Performance from Baylor University, where he studied with Richard Shanley with a full scholarship. From the Eastman School of Music, he holds the Master of Music degree in Clarinet Performance, a Performer's Certificate, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. He studied there with Kenneth Grant with a full scholarship and as the last private student of Stanley Hasty. Dr. Qian is the founding director of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Clarinet Choir, Baylor Clarinet Choir, Baylor Clarinet Festival, Virtuosi Chamber Winds, and the Amadeus Youth Clarinet Ensemble. ( July , 2022 version)
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