When I was 12 years old, I only had one wish – to play the clarinet!
My search for the right instrument was a bumpy road – I played Violin at the age of 3, piano from the age of 5 and recorders from the age of 7. Luckily, I had attentive and loving parents, who granted me my wish and I received a wonderful Buffet Crampon R13 clarinet shortly after. My relationship with the instrument, which quite quickly became my voice, began.
I have tried countless instruments since and even played a few for a while, finding out again and again that my heart still belongs to the R13 model of Buffet Crampon. I am so grateful for this wonderful instrument being available everywhere for all clarinetists out there, looking for a dark, flexible and personal sound.
About 20 years ago I started performing Mozart concerto and quintet on the Buffet Crampon Prestige Basset Clarinet. The beauty of this instrument took a while to unfold but it definitely has become my new voice for Mozart. It has a very stable mechanic and can even be played without a neck strap!
Over the years, Buffet Crampon has been extremely generous and attentive to my needs as an artist. Thank you Buffet for always searching for the best solution and supporting me in my career!
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In my first lesson at the Juilliard School, David Shifrin gave me a James Kanter mouthpiece of his to try. I immediately fell in love with it! He then urged me to fly to LA and have some done for me specifically. I played my two Kanter mouthpieces for almost 10 years until unfortunately both fell and broke within a year. I tried to buy new ones but Mr. Kanter was not making any at the time. So I continued to search and asked all my colleagues for advice.​
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One day, Sabine Meyer mentioned her brother, Wolfgang, was raving about a new french system mouthpiece he tried. She invited me over to try it. When I played his Peter Eaton mouthpiece I couldn't believe my luck - it was like coming home! How could this English mouthpiece be exactly like the one from LA?
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When I received my own order from Peter Eaton, including information about his clarinets, I learned, that each Eaton clarinet comes with a mouthpiece. And guess who plays Peter Eaton clarinets? James Kanter! So, I found the original mouthpiece, which Kanter based his upon. What a lucky strike! And of course I play Eaton mouthpieces ever since.
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