Eric Mandat
Professor
Distinguished Scholar
214 Altgeld
emandat@siu.edu
618-453-5828
From performing the Mozart Concerto on basset clarinet with the Latvian National Chamber Orchestra in Riga (the site of the first documented performance of the work) during the Mozart bicentennial celebration in 1991, to presenting a recital of his own compositions as an invited guest artist during the 1994 ClarinetFest in Chicago, to performing the title role in the 1996 world premiere of John Eaton's opera for instrumentalists, Don Quixote, clarinetist/composer Eric Mandat is taking versatility to a new level. He tours extensively as a soloist and chamber musician, presenting lectures and recitals featuring new American clarinet music and extended performance techniques. He also performs regularly as part of the Chicago Symphony’s new highly acclaimed contemporary chamber music series, MusicNow.
Mandat is a member of the Tone Road Ramblers, an eclectic sextet specializing in improvisation and experimental music. The Ramblers have performed throughout the United States, including Merkin Hall in New York for the 1997 World Music Institute Interpretations series. Their CD, Intersections & Detours, was described as “filled with wit, joy and creative sparkle” by Option magazine. Since 1993, the Tone Road Ramblers have held an annual residency at the Ragdale Foundation, an artist colony in Lake Forest, Illinois. Their latest CD, The Tone Road Ramblers: The Ragdale Years, is available from Einstein Records.
Mandat has been equally active throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as a performer of more traditional clarinet repertoire. He is a member of the Transatlantic Trio, whose CD performances of trios by Brahms and d’Indy “easily rank with the best available releases” according to Fanfare magazine. The Transatlantic Trio will soon release its second CD, featuring works by Beethoven and Latvian composers Peteris Plakidis and Talivaldis Kenins.
As a composer, Mandat focuses on works for clarinet solo and in small chamber ensembles. His compositions utilize multiphonics and microtones within a musical framework influenced largely by jazz and traditional music of non-Western cultures. His Folk Songs for solo clarinet received the following review by Linda Pierce in The Clarinet: “A composition of this caliber will most likely enter the performance repertoire as the representative piece of the decade!” Folk Songs and other of Mandat’s works are featured on his solo CD, The Extended Clarinet, which received the following review by Michele Gingras in The Clarinet: “In one word, The Extended Clarinet is astonishing. Eric Mandat’s process at writing and playing is bound to leave any listener in awe.” Mandat is a recipient of a 2000-2001 Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award for composition, and his music is published by Cirrus Music.
Mandat received his education at the University of North Texas (B.M.), the Yale School of Music (M.M.), and the Eastman School of Music (D.M.A.). His principal teachers have included Richard Joiner, Lee Gibson, Keith Wilson, Stanley Hasty, and Charles Neidich. He is Professor of Music at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he teaches clarinet and courses in musical analysis. He was named Southern Illinois University’s 1999 Outstanding Scholar.
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