Another piece of living history has left us. Clarinetist Stanley Drucker died on Monday, at the age of 93.
Drucker played with the New York Philharmonic for over 60 years. For 49 of those, he served as principal (beginning in 1960). In total, he played some 10,200 concerts in New York. He appeared as soloist with the orchestra some 150 times. On June 4, 2009, he was acknowledged with a Guinness World Record for longest career as a clarinetist, logging his Philharmonic career at 62 years, 7 months, and 1 day.
Prior to his New York tenure, he played with the Indianapolis Symphony (from the age of 16!). On the journey from Indianapolis to New York, he also managed to work with Adolf Busch’s Busch Little Symphony and serve as principal clarinetist with the Buffalo Philharmonic.
In 2007, Gustavo Dudamel said of Drucker, “He’s a legend. The history of the orchestra is in him.”
R.I.P.
Drucker, described here by Leonard Bernstein as “our orchestra’s high-priced soloist,” playing his signature piece, the Copland Clarinet Concerto (following a four-minute Bernstein intro)
The Carl Nielsen concerto (done all in one take, in an era before digital editing)
The world premiere of the John Corigliano concerto (written for him)
New York Philharmonic tribute
Profile on ABC News, upon his retirement from the Philharmonic at the age of 80