Clarinet
Clarinetist Taig Egan lives in New York, and has been playing with WHCO since 2023. Recent highlights include two summers at the Tanglewood Music Festival and a performance of Weber’s ‘Concertino’ at the International Clarinet Association’s 50th Anniversary conference in Denver. He has also enjoyed summers at Spoleto USA and the Sarasota Music Festival. He previously studied with clarinetist Sam Boutris, and is now a Bachelor of Music student at The Juilliard School where he studies with Jon Manasse. In his spare time, Taig enjoys jazz and looking up rare etymologies.
Meet Taig
What is your favorite part about performing?
Getting to share music with people!
What music do you like to listen to outside of classical music?
Big Band swing, Django Reinhardt, Jazz (lots of Bill Evans), Vulfpeck, the Beatles, Bob Dylan. I also love the song “Funkytown.”
What is, in your opinion, the most important thing about accessibility to music education?
Learning to make music is a joyous thing. Everyone deserves to share in this joy and bring beauty into the world! Studying music at any level also builds so many skills: listening, tenacity, working as team. They say music students tend to do better than their peers in other academic subjects. My high school Calculus grades disagree, but maybe without clarinet it would have been worse!
What do you enjoy about playing in a more intimate setting such as a chamber orchestra?
The level of communication between the musicians is necessarily heightened when there are fewer players and each part is more important than in some huge orchestral work. This communication can lead to especially exciting music making. The audience is also usually closer in a chamber performance, which helps us to feel more connected with those listening. It’s wonderful to see up close how people react to especially funny or dramatic moments in the music.
What drew you to your instrument of choice?
I was playing guitar in a jazz band, and one of the saxophone players stood up and took a burning clarinet solo. I had been playing a little clarinet so I could make friends in the band, but from then on, I was hooked.