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World-renowned clarinetist Igor Begelman is conducting a series of educational sessions at the Tryon Fine Arts Center.

 

Begelman has performed across the US and around the world, has taught at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Brooklyn College and Sarah Lawrence College and has guest lectured at Yale, Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music.

 

“I frequently encounter people who have a good education and have a lot of knowledge but there’s always more that they can learn,” says Begelman. “And what I try to do with my presentations is to try to give the kind of material that is not something you can just Google and find for yourself,” 

 

His TFAC educational series focuses on the history of the orchestra and how classical instruments like the violin have developed in other regions of the world.

 

“That would be new to most people,” says Begelman. “I myself find it fascinating and I hope that I am able to infect people with that kind of interest.”

 

Begelman was born and raised in Ukraine and was first introduced to music around age nine when his mother taught him piano. He took up the clarinet as a teenager before moving to the US in 1989. Even though he’s lived here most of his life, Begelman says he’s been thinking about the war in his home country.

 

“The fate of the country is on my mind every day,” says Begelman. “And I hope this will end at some point with the restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty and the triumph of the Ukrainian people.”

 

Begelman, his wife and two children now live in Greenville, SC. His next workshops are on February 9, March 9 and April 13 at 4 p.m., and will also be available online. For more information or to buy tickets visit tryonarts.org.