'What is a clarinet choir?'

The official answer to that is ‘it is an instrumental ensemble consisting entirely of instruments from the clarinet family’.

Blackwood clarinets represent most members of the clarinet family. Right from the shrill Eb clarinet to the booming contrabass clarinet. The sound produced by a group of clarinets has been compared to that of a concert organ. Though varying in range, members of the clarinet family have homogenous timbres. Therefore, the clarinet choir may be thought of as a woodwind equivalent to the string orchestra.

 

Blackwood was formed, back in 2010, when the clarinet section of Nottingham Symphonic Wind Orchestra came together to hold rehearsals. At the end of the first rehearsal, our contrabass clarinettist, Dave Oldershaw, (pictured here on the left) suggested it would be a great idea to form an ensemble of our own. After several weeks of badgering, our chair was talked into taking on the arrangements!!

Our first concert was in 2011 and since then we enjoyed performing a variety of concerts across the East Midlands and in 2019 we were lucky enough to do a short concert tour of Javea, Spain.

 

 

We thoroughly enjoy playing a wide variety of music that includes original clarinet choir repertoire, orchestral classics, jazz, musicals and film music and more…

Now under the direction of conductor Dan Watson, Blackwood performs all over the East Midlands, in both public concerts and private functions.

You can check out our up coming performances here