ABOUT
The multi-award-winning Ukrainian-born American clarinetist Alexander Bedenko has given recitals at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Steinway Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and UNESCO in Paris.
Since graduating from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he has collaborated with artists such as Gautier Capuçon, Christoph Eschenbach, Kirill Gerstein, Daniel Hope, Nobuko Imai, Christiane Karg, Nikolai Lugansky, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and Vladimir Spivakov, as well as with the Borodin, Jerusalem, Alma, Ariel, Endellion and Orion string quartets.
He has also made solo appearances with the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, Romanian, Uzbekistan and Ukraine National Symphony Orchestras, Texarkana Symphony Orchestra, and Moscow Virtuosi, and taken part in chamber music concerts at the Colmar, Verbier, Spoleto, Malta, Mozaic and Schubertiade festivals.
In 2019, Alexander Bedenko released an acclaimed debut album on Orchid classics with Kyril Zlotnikov and Itamar Golan. This was followed in March 2022 by Finding Home (Sony Classical). His arrangements for clarinet and piano of five works by Tchaikovsky were published worldwide by Muzyka Edition in 2021.
A former Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra principal clarinetist, he has been guest principal clarinetist on a Chicago Symphony Orchestra tour, by invitation of Riccardo Muti, and has also performed as guest principal with the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra (London), The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra, this last under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst.
Alexander Bedenko is a Selmer Paris and D’Addario Woodwinds artist.
ACCLAIM
“Timbrally, the performances are ravishing. Bedenko’s tone is the most luxurious velvet” Gramophone. December 2019
“Bedenko provides a passionate push and pull of emotional phrasing with glowing warmth.” Andrea Vos Rochefort, The International Clarinet Association. August 2020
“…with the long-reaching, lyrical lines given to the clarinet, Bedenko is like a gentle, quietly radiant beacon guiding one’s ear effortlessly into the emotional center of whatever is happening in the music at any given time.” David Patrick Stearns, ArtsJournal. April 2020
“Bychkov shaped the melancholy slow movement with considerable feeling, bringing out the lyrical eloquence of Walton’s woodwind writing; here the contributions of bassoonist William Buchman and Alexander Bedenko, who was sitting in as guest principal clarinet for a second week, were especially striking.” Chicago Tribune, October 25, 2013.
“Superb clarinetist” Eugenia Zukerman, MusicalAmerica. July 2013
“A super talent.” Ricardo Morales - Principal clarinet, The Philadelphia Orchestra
“Alexander Bedenko is an extraordinary musician who plays his instrument with great technical confidence and tremendous heart” Mikael Eliasen - Head, Vocal Studies Department at the Curtis Institute of music
“An accomplished young clarinetist, with a splendid technique and an unusual ability to communicate his musical ideas to his listeners” Gary Graffman
“Alexander Bedenko is an impeccable clarinetist who performs with style and sensitivity” Aaron Rosand
“Without a doubt, one of the most musical and creative young musicians I have worked with” Michael Stern
“Mr. Bedenko has terrific natural gifts, including a beautiful intuition for phrasing and a relaxed, unfettered sound” Ignat Solzhenitsyn