Margaret Donaghue, director of the Woodwind Program at Frost School of Music, was pleased to hear the great news: Mark Nuccio was coming to Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. The two clarinetists have worked together at Festival Napa Valley, performing in iconic wine country settings and teaching at the Frost School of Music at Festival Napa Valley’s collegiate summer academy.
Nuccio is best known for both his solo and chamber appearances. Critics describe him as a performer “full of mystery and insight.” A virtuoso clarinetist who captures the clarinet’s exquisite lyrical beauty to breathtaking effect, and “shapes his phrases beautifully with a rich, expressive tone.”
In 2016, he joined the Houston Symphony after 17 years with the New York Philharmonic as an associate principal clarinetist. Throughout his impressive career, he’s worked with distinguished conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salomen, Andres Orozco Estrada, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Mariss Jansons, and Riccardo Muti, to name a few. He has been a soloist in other orchestras, performing challenging works such as Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, which according to the Houston Chronicle, “quickly became one of the most popular modern pieces in the clarinet repertory.” It also makes an excellent teaching tool, Nuccio shares, “both for his students and himself.”
Aside from his work with the illustrious Houston Symphony and New York Philharmonic, Nuccio has recorded with a series of orchestras and performed with the Philharmonic on the award-winning series, Live from Lincoln Center, which is broadcast on PBS. And this fall, he will start at Frost as an artist-in-residence on clarinet, a post he will continue for several consecutive years.
“His orchestral experience is of the highest level,” says Donaghue. “Having him join the Frost School of Music and work with our students, preparing them, particularly in that area, is a wonderful benefit for us.” She continued, “Mark Nuccio has a fantastic orchestral background. I’ve known him for a long time, and I’m just thrilled he’ll be working with our students to provide coaching, private lessons, and master classes. Bringing in Nuccio will add a new dimension to the orchestral side that will challenge everybody—completing our studio program.”
Nuccio is equally excited to start a new chapter of his teaching career with the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and about working with Donaghue as a teaching partner.
“With the first-rate music faculty, as well as a conducting staff, headed by Gerard Schwarz and Robert M. Carnochan, I think this will be a wonderful place for students to get a well-rounded education in preparing them for a life in music,” says Nuccio.
