Roger Garrett began his clarinet performance career at the age of seventeen as a guest soloist with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. He has since performed within the ranks of several professional orchestras, including the Oregon Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Chamber Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Chamber Orchestra, Heartland Festival Orchestra, and Peoria Opera Orchestra. He is currently Principal Clarinetist of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Garrett graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan with multiple degrees in music education and music performance. As part of the Ph.D. program, his cognates included extensive study in the areas of clarinet performance and instrumental conducting. Following his graduate degree work at Michigan, he taught at in the School of Music at Illinois Wesleyan University, retiring as Associate Professor Emeritus in 2020 after 32 years.
A basset horn and low clarinet specialist, Mr. Garrett has performed and recorded basset horn trios with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra clarinet section. He has also performed basset horn in chamber music with such ensembles as the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra wind section, North Carolina Symphony Orchestra wind section, Colorado Music Festival Chamber Ensemble, Kalamazoo Symphony wind section, and the Peoria Symphony wind section. He has been a featured basset horn performer for Mozart’s Grand Serenade No. 10 for winds in Bb major (Gran Partita) in over 16 performances, of which one performance aired over National Public Radio. His album entitled Extended Clarinets!, released by NOViTAS Records, features Mr. Garrett performing chamber music with clarinetists of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, Seattle Opera Orchestra, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, and Eugene Symphony Orchestra. This album includes published arrangements by Mr. Garrett, such as Zwölfen Variations for Three Clarinet and Bass Clarinet (originally for piano) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as his setting for clarinet choir of St. Paul’s Suite for String Orchestra by Gustav Holst.
Mr. Garrett is a Yamaha Performing Artist and performs exclusively on their Bb and A clarinets in the Peoria Symphony Orchestra.
