Sabine Meyer

The breadth of clarinetist Sabine Meyer's repertoire is matched by her dedication to collaborations with other, equally skilled musicians. She received her first music lessons from her father, clarinetist Karl Meyer, and then went on to study with Otto Hermann in Stuttgart and Hans Deinzer in Hannover. She was 16 when she made her professional debut. She joined Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for a time, then in 1982, Herbert von Karajan created something of an international stir by appointing her as solo clarinetist for the Berlin Philharmonic, going against the orchestra's tradition of not admitting female musicians. However, she only remained with the orchestra for a year, as the demand grew for her to perform as soloist with other orchestras and chamber ensembles. In addition to having performed with more than 80 professional orchestras in Germany and her regular appearances throughout Europe, North America, and Japan, her work has taken her to Brazil, Africa, Israel, and Australia. Meyer's chamber music partners have included Barbara Hendricks, Gidon Kremer, Tabea Zimmermann, Heinrich Schiff, Oleg Maisenberg, Lars Vogt, the Vienna String Sextet; the Hagen, Cleveland, and Alban Berg quartets; and the Tokyo String Quartet, with whom she toured in 2001-2002. In 1983 she formed the Clarone Trio with her brother, Wolfgang Meyer, and her husband, Reiner Wehle, and in 1988 the Bläserensemble Sabine Meyer. With the Trio, she has recorded with jazz clarinetists Eddie Daniels and Michael Riessler. Meyer's recordings had garnered six ECHO awards from the Deutsche Phonoakademie as of 2003, the most for any one classical artist at the time. Her recordings include most of the standard concerto, solo, and chamber music repertory for clarinet, but she has worked assiduously with contemporary composers to present new works as well. The award-winning album Modern Works for Wind Ensemble features works by Denisov, Hosokawa, Castiglioni, Obst, and Raskatov, and she has also premiered pieces by Harald Genzmer, Marc-André Dalbavie, and Manfred Trojahn. In 1993 Meyer was appointed professor at the Lübeck Academy of Music. She makes a specific emphasis on solid technical training for her students to aid their tone quality. What little time she has left after all her performing, recording, and teaching engagements she spends with her husband and two children in Lübeck, where she also raises horses.