Background
Clarinettist Richard MacDowell has taught and performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad. His study and degrees are from the Eastman School of Music, the New England Conservatory, Northwestern University and Florida State University.
He has studied clarinet with Robert Marcellus, Stanley Hasty, Leon Russianoff, and Fred Ormand. He is known to be one of the strongest pedagogues in the Marcellus and Hasty traditions. Before coming to the University of Texas at Austin, where he is an associate professor of clarinet, he taught at the Interlochen Arts Academy at Interlochen, Michigan for a number of years.
He has been on the faculty of the Banff Festival in Alberta, Canada, giving a week of master classes to international students. While there, he participated in two recitals, one of which featured the Mozart Clarinet Quintet. He was the principal clarinet in a two-week orchestra festival in the Dominican Republic; the Northwood Orchestra in Harbor Springs, Michigan; the Killington Music Festival in Vermont; the Kapalua Festival in Maui, Hawaii; the Bayview Festival in Petoskey, Michigan; and a frequent clinician and performer in the International Clarinet Association's ClarinetFest and the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium.
He has given recitals and masterclasses at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan; Oberlin Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio; Florida State University in Tallahassee; Western Carolina University in Cullowhee; and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
He has been the principal clarinet of the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, the Lakewood Ensemble of Dallas, Mozart-fest of Austin, the Chamber Soloists of Austin, Salon Concerts and the Victoria Bach Festival.