C. Anthony Oliveras

Charles Anthony Oliveras was born in California in August 1981.  He started playing the clarinet at the age of nine and began studying privately when he was 18.

Anthony participated in his first masterclass in 1998 with Todd Palmer.  In 1999 he performed in his first competition and received a “Command Performance”  rating as a soloist and a “Superior”  rating as a chamber musician in the Solano County Solo and Ensemble Festival.  

He attended the University of Redlands (CA) from 1999-2003, receiving his Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance studying with Dr. Phillip Rehfeldt.  During this time he served as principal clarinetist, bass clarinetist and Eb clarinetist in the University of Redlands Symphony Orchestra and in the Wind Symphony where he performed not only symphonies but also musicals, operas and Opera-Gala concerts.  He also performed and toured with the Redlands String Quartet.  From 2000-2002 he was a member of the Twentieth Century Music Club where he premiered many wonderful new works, quite a few of which were written especially for him.  In 2003 he was a semifinalist in both the Lené Febland Foundation Scholarship Competition and the Redlands Bowl Young Artists's Competition.  He was also awarded the Presser Foundation Music Scholarship.

From 2003-2007 he studied at the Vienna Conservatory of Music with Roger Salander.  In 2004 he had the pleasure of participating in a masterclass with Stanley Drucker (former principal clarinetist, New York Philharmonic) and was also afforded the opportunity to personally work with George Crumb and perform some of his chamber music in the Wiener Konzerthaus Festival:  Portrait George Crumb.  Later that year, Anthony also worked with composer Oliver Peter Graber and recorded his piece improvisation for solo clarinet.  In the 2005/06 season he performed as a clarinetist (also playing bass clarinet and saxophone) in Paul Dessau’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle in both the Schauspielhaus Wien and in the Grand Theatre de la ville Luxembourg.  In 2006 he participated in a masterclass with the vienna clarinet connection. 

Anthony was the principal clarinetist in the Salon Orchestra of the Austrian Cultural Institute in Palais Palffy from 2004-2006.   In October 2007 he performed in the International Music Festival Tamaulipas (Mexico). He has been a member of the Vienna Residence Orchestra since September 2007.  Since 2008 Anthony has also been playing clarinet and bass clarinet with both the Middle European Chamber Orchestra and the Robert Stolz Chamber Orchestra - Sinfonia Piccola.  He has also served as a bass clarinet substitute wih the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina.  Since 2009, Anthony has also been a member of the Rondo Danube Orchestra (Vienna/Bratislava, click to see a video clip).  

In December 2009, Anthony had the privilege of having private lessons with both Michele Zukovsky (principal clarinetist, Los Angeles Philharmonic) and Michael Grego.  In 2010 he participated in the Crossculture Academy of the Vienna Symphony (Bregenz, Austria) studying privately with Gerald Pachinger and Alexander Neubauer.  In August 2010 he performed in the Opern Air Festival Gars am Kamp (Austria).  Anthony recorded a CD  of music for clarinet solo and clarinet with piano/orchestra with Christine David in October 2010.  It features works by Stravinsky, Mozart, Shaw, Weber and Debussy, click to listen.  In December 2010 he took part in the 1st International Clarinet Seminar in Murcia, Spain with Prof. Yehuda Gilad.

In May 2011, Anthony performed a trio concert in Westerkappeln (Germany) with two fabulous colleagues:  Katja Rothfuss, soprano and Chanda VanderHart, piano.  They performed everything from classical to jazz and the concert was very well-received.  The newspaper Osnabrücker Zeitung gave them a rave review .

In January 2012, Anthony joined the Vienna Walzer Orchestra for their annual Japan tour.  After returning from Japan, he started working as a project manager for culturellevents (the organization responsible for organizing this tour).  Since these tours have been so well received by audiences worldwide, his immediate goal for this group is to organize tours throughout the United States and Canada.  You can find clips for this ensemble on YouTube.

Anthony has also been an active and passionate teacher.  He has been giving private clarinet lessons since he was 16 years old.  Since 2011 he has been a member of the music faculty at the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES Vienna) as both a private clarinet teacher and a chamber music coach.  This has afforded him the opportunity to teach very talented undergraduate college students from all over the U.S. while they spend a semester or a year abroad in Vienna.