Elizabeth Bley is a Vandoren Artist-Clinician and is the Principal Clarinetist with The Loudoun Symphony Orchestra. She maintains a large private studio (teaching 34 students per week) and works throughout Northern Virginia as an adjudicator, clinician, master class instructor, clarinet sectional coach, and freelance musician. Ms. Bley is the editor of clarinet music for the Virginia Band & Orchestra Directors Association, grading and maintaining a database of over 4,000 solo and ensemble works for clarinet. She has performed many times as a soloist at the Bruges Conservatory in Belgium, where she received a Clarinetissimo Talent Award for her “outstanding performances and high artistic level.”  

Ms. Bley’s students are routinely selected as principal players in local youth orchestras, youth wind programs, All-District Bands, Senior Regional Orchestras, and the Virginia All-State Bands and Orchestras on all types of clarinet including Bb Soprano, Eb Soprano, Bass Clarinet, Contra Alto Clarinet and Contra Bass Clarinet. Many of Ms. Bley’s students have been selected to the NAfME All-National Honor Band, the Music For All Honor Band of America, and were chosen as Principal Clarinet in both the Virginia All-State Orchestra and the top Virginia All-State Band.

Ms. Bley holds a MMA in Clarinet Performance from Shenandoah Conservatory, a MS in Management Information Systems from the George Washington University, a BA in Music and a BS in Psychology from the College of William & Mary, and attended the University of Michigan School of Music at Interlochen. Her teachers include Patti Carlson of the Virginia Symphony; Paul Cigan, Larry Bocaner and William Wright of the National Symphony Orchestra; Barbara Duman of Reston; Sidney Forrest of the Peabody Conservatory of Music; and Garrick Zoeter of Shenandoah Conservatory. She is currently studying Alexander Technique and Body Mapping with Shawn Copeland.

Ms. Bley performs on Uebel Zenit clarinets, which are designed and manufactured in Germany. For more information about Ms. Bley, visit www.theclarinetstudio.com.