Charles Stier is hailed for his gorgeous tone, seamless lyricism, excellence and consummate artistry as a classical clarinet soloist. He has dazzled audiences and critics alike with concerto, recital and chamber music performances in seventeen countries on three continents.

American venues included the Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Weill [Carnegie] Recital Hall and Alice Tully Hall, New York, NY; the Cleveland Museum of Art (OH) and the Frick Museum, Pittsburgh, PA. Click here for reviews.

International performances included Brazil, Curacao, Venezuela, Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic. He often toured as an American "artistic and cultural ambassador" for the United States Information Service.

His guest performances with chamber music organizations included the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and String Quartets such as the Cleveland, Shanghai,
St. Petersburg, Helios, Leontovitch, Franciscan, St. Lawrence and Sibelius Academy.

As a summer artist, he appeared at the Newport Music Festival (RI), the Chautauqua Institution (NY), Music Mountain (CT), Piccolo Spoleto (SC), Helsinki and Korsholm (Finland), among others.

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His recordings, The Art of the Romantic Clarinet, Cameos, One and The Clarinet in the Age of Enlightenment have received outstanding critical acclaim and are regularly broadcast throughout the world. Future releases include Peace On Earth, K439b, The American Myth and Lush Life.

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His book titles are On Performance, Clarinet Reeds and What Happens After Graduation? Dr. Stier has authored numerous articles for periodicals. Click here for books.

Born in 1956 in Charleston, SC, Stier studied with the late Dr. Gordon C. Bobbett, Dr. Randall Thompson (B.A., College of Charleston, 1977), Dr. Norman M. Heim (M.M., 1979 and D.M.A., 1982, University of Maryland), the late W. Hans Moennig (Philadelphia, PA), the late Alan Balter (Baltimore, MD), the late Dr. Robert Marcellus (Evanston, IL; formerly Principal Clarinet, The Cleveland Orchestra) and George Pieterson (retired Solo Clarinet, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Amsterdam, Holland).

Since 1987, Stier has performed exclusively on Wurlitzer Reform-Boehm clarinets. In 1996 he was named North American Artist Representative for Wurlitzer Clarinets. In 2010 was was asked to form WurlitzerClarinetsAmerica.com.

His original major musical works include...

• Chamber Music
  • Piano Quintet in B minor for piano and string quartet
  • In My Sky at Twilight and Zigeuner for jazz guitar and string quartet
  • Ashokan Fantasy (after Jay Ungar) for three violins
• Solo piano
  • Album for Young Pianists
  • Song for Sharma
  • I Died For Beauty
  • Waltz in B-flat Major
• Song cycles for voice and piano
  • Nothing's Changed: Ten Erotic Poems from Antiquity (Bhartrhari, Catullus, Amaru, Philodemus, Martial and Petronius)
  • Solitude Poems (William Carlos Williams, Philip Larkin, Callimachus, Sappho, Matthea Harvey, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Stevie Smith, Mary Oliver and e.e. cummings)
  • The Voices (Nine Pages with a Titlepage) from The Book of Pictures, Book 2, Part II by Rainer Maria Rilke
  • Preludes (T.S. Eliot)
  • Love Poems (Bhartrhari, William Butler Yates, Pablo Neruda, Robert Graves, Percy Byssche Shelley, Zenodotus and Philip Larkin)
  • The Robert Frost Songs
  • Seven Songs of Emily Dickinson
• Chorus
  • Death by Water (Phlebas the Phoenician) from The Waste Land, No.IV by T.S. Eliot
• Opera

• Numerous arrangements for combinations of piano, voice, winds, strings and percussion.