Dear Clarinettist,

it is our pleasure to welcome you on the official website of the ECA — and to share with you the fantastic world of the clarinet!

The ECA is on a good path. Steadily the number of memberships is increasing. We have members from almost all the European countries. Of course we are still at the beginning and the team around the board is working hard to take successful next steps. There were some changes:

Stephan Vermeersch from Belgium is now Vice-President.

Severine Sierens also from Belgium is the new Secretary.

Sarah Watts from Great Britain is new in the board for England and Scandinavia.

Many thanks to Simone Weber and David Campbell for their work.

A lot of wonderful events are coming up: - 3rd European Clarinet Festival in Ghent in January 2013 - ICA ClarinetFest in Assisi in August But the next big events are in the pipeline: - 4th European Clarinet Festival in Katowice in December 2014 - ICA ClarinetFest in Madrid in 2015 In the coming year the ECA is hoping to involve all members in more active participation and to have a more lively website and an even more intense exchange. If you have any inputs don't hesitate to tell us.

To close, here's an interesting story I heard. Johannes Brahms has written more than 20 string quartets and published the best 4! How many clarinet sonatas has he written? Anyway if we have a look today in the Internet it would be not bad if people would think more about what he published...

I wish you a Christmas full of music and a wonderful start in 2013.

All the best, Matthias Müller, President

As you probably know, in January 2013 is the 3rd European Clarinet Festival in Belgium. After the big success of the 1st European Clarinet Festival in Kortrijk, International Music Promotion decided to organize the festival again but this time in the beautiful city of Ghent, the capital of East-Flanders. The festival will be held from 18 till 20 January 2013 in the Conservatory of Ghent.
The festival will be the place to be for every clarinetist!

- January 18, 8 PM: 2° final round of the ‘International Clarinet Competition, Ghent’ (see www.international- music-promotion.be) with 3 of the 6 finalists, performing the Henri Tomasi concerto and one of the 2 concertino’s of the Belgian 19th century composer Karel Lodewijk Hanssens. This will be with the Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Paul Meyer.

- January 19: There is a concert with the big band of the Belgian Navy and soloists Valdemar Rodriguez/Venezuela, Stéphane Chausse/France and Paquito D’Riviera/Cuba-USA. After the concert, there will be a jazz café with Stéphane and Paquito.

- January 20, 8 pm: There is a closing concert with the Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Dirk Brossé with Kari Krikku/Finland, Eddy Vanoosthuyse/Belgium, Paquito D’Riviera/Cuba-USA, Matthias Müller/Switzerland (world premiere for SABRe bassclarinet and orchestra), Giuffredi Corrado / Italy and the first prizewinner of the International competition.

- On Saturday and Sunday masterclasses, clinics, concerts will be held (Keith Koons, Piero Vincenti, Cynthia Doggett, Robert Spring, Philippe Cuper, Nicolas Baldeyrou, Karl Leister, ...)

- There is also an International Clarinet Choir Festival : with choirs from Belgium, Holland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Luxembourg, United Kingdom..- International bassclarinet congress with Harry Sparnaay/Holland, Marc Kerckhof/Belgium, Stephan Vermeersch/Belgium, Sarah Watts/UK, Pedro Rubio/Spain, ..-..You are all welcome to join us and take part in the festival!