Stephen Williamson is principal clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, appointed by Riccardo Muti in 2011. Williamson formerly was principal of both the New York Philharmonic (2013–14) and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (2003–11). In addition, he has been a frequent guest principal clarinet with the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra in Japan under Seiji Ozawa.
Williamson currently is a faculty member of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. He also has served on the faculties of Columbia University and the Mannes College of Music in New York; the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan; and the Domaine Forget International Music Festival in Quebec. He has recorded for the Sony Classics, Telarc, CRI, BMG, Naxos and Decca labels as well, and he can be heard on numerous film soundtracks. He was a featured soloist with the Orchestra under John Williams on the composer’s Oscar-nominated score to Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Williamson has performed extensively in the United States, Europe and Asia. He has collaborated with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Mitsuko Uchida, Jeffrey Kahane, Anne-Marie McDermott, Emanuel Ax and Meliora Winds; the Aspen, Dorian and Sylvan wind quintets; the Brentano, American, Jasper, Brasilia and Dover string quartets; and with his fellow CSO musicians as a member of the CSO Chamber Players. Other performances include Copland’s Clarinet Concerto with the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra at the Pacific Music Festival in 2018, the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Japan in 2011 and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in Carnegie Hall under Fabio Luisi in 2012.
Williamson received a bachelor’s degree and performer’s certificate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and a master’s degree from the Juilliard School in New York. As a Fulbright Scholar, he furthered his studies at the Berlin University of the Arts. His past teachers include Peter Rieckhoff, Charles Neidich, Kenneth Grant and Michael Webster. He holds the Saunderson Award from the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, the 1997 New York Concert Artist Guild Competition Nathan Wedeen Award and the grand prize in the First Annual Buffet Crampon North American Clarinet Competition in 1994.
In 2019 Williamson was one of three invited clarinetists to adjudicate the first-ever woodwind category of the Sixteenth International Tchaikovsky Competition.
A longtime Selmer-Paris and Vandoren Artist, Stephen Williamson currently plays Selmer Signature clarinets and uses Vandoren traditional reeds with a James Pyne JX/BC mouthpiece.
He resides in Wilmette, Illinois, with his wife, Jill; sons Ryan, Connor and Matthew; and Bucky and Ruby, their dog and cat.
