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Dr. Miles M. Ishigaki

Dr. Miles M. IshigakiMiles M. Ishigaki, DMA began playing the clarinet at the age of 10 in his home town Oklahoma, where he earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts in clarinet performance. Ishigaki is presently a Professor of Music at California State University, Fresno, where he has taught applied clarinet and music theory since 1987, as well as being the director of the University Clarinet Choir. Since 1989 he has served as state chair for the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors. His gifted college and pre-college single-reed students have won awards in international clarinet competitions and have been participants in prestigious regional and national honor wind ensemble festivals. In addition, students from his studio have received numerous prestigious academic awards: Fulbright Scholarship, CSUF Rodman Scholarship, CSUF Rodman Graduate Fellowship, University of Oklahoma Graduate Fellowship and UCLA Doctoral Fellowship.

Ishigaki is an experienced orchestral and chamber musician, and has taken part in many performances with such groups as the Fresno Philharmonic, Oklahoma Symphony, Fresno Lyric Opera, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, Fort Collins Symphony and the Greeley Philharmonic. His enthusiasm for the solo and chamber repertoire of the clarinet has resulted in his giving numerous concerts in the United States, England and Japan; in his being a guest soloist and lecturer at the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium; and with directing special arts projects for the CSU Summer Arts Program ("Clarinet Artistry: An eclectic forum" and "Mozart: The Composer, His Chamber Music and the Clarinet"). He also shares his musical talents through performances for community organizations such as the American Red Cross, Valley Children's Hospital, Friends of the Fresno Public Library Series, the Central California Nikkei Foundation and the Japanese American Citizen's League.

Ishigaki has studied clarinet with David Etheridge, David Harman, Loren Bartlett, and Stanley Shimada, who are all distinguished teachers, that have been closely associated with prominent clarinet studios in the United States: Stanley Hasty (Eastman School of Music), Himie Voxman (University of Iowa), George Waln (Oberlin Conservatory) and William Gower (University of Northern Colorado). A lively interest in all aspects of the art of performance is a quality that Dr. Ishigaki brings to his current research projects: Inspired Accidents: The Interaction of Intuition and Analysis in Teaching Music Performance; and Stravinsky's Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet: Interpretations by Great Artists. His research documents intimate experiences and insightful views of musical interpretation by renowned clarinetists: Larry Combs, Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Stanley Hasty, Eastman School of Music; George Silfies, St. Louis Orchestra; Leon Russianoff, Juilliard School of Music; Guy Deplus, France; Anton Stalder, Switzerland; Alan Hacker, England; Teruaki Matsushiro, Musashino Academy, Japan; and Chun-Xiao Tao, Central Music Conservatory, China.

A co-founder of the West Coast Clarinet Congress, Ishigaki serves as both a Yamaha Artist Clinician and a Rico International Artist.

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