Clarinetist Ayako Oshima: Making Music, Mentoring, and Cooking
Ms Oshima has a high profile as a teacher and is on the faculties of the Hartt School, the State University of New York at Purchase, and the Juilliard School. With her husband, the clarinetist and composer Charles Neidich, she has written a book on the fundamentals of clarinet technique. She founded the all-female clarinet group the NY Licorice Ensemble, and co-founded the WA Concert Series in New York, with the concept of “Great Taste” connecting music and food.
Gena Raps: You’re married to Charles Neidich. What is it like having two great clarinetists in the same house? How do you practice?
Ayako Oshima: My husband, Charlie, practices a lot. I don’t practice much. Basically, we practice in separate rooms, and it’s no problem. I know of many clarinet couples.
GR: Is it fun?
AO: Yes. We often play duets.
GR: How did you meet?
AO: We met at the Munich competition in 1982, which Charlie won. I was a candidate too, and luckily I passed the first round and we were always hanging around together.
It was sensational; he was extraordinary. Everybody was having a wonderful time together. People had given up their hard feelings over World War II by then.
That was the first time we met. And in the meantime, I was thinking I should step up; I wanted to play better. I thought, this is a person with whom I should study. So I decided to come to United States.
GR: You did not go home?
AO: I went back to Japan, but Charlie came to Japan to give concerts. In 1985 he had just started to teach at the Eastman School. I didn’t speak English but I thought I wanted to study with him, and he accepted me as a student. So I came to New York that same year. I was the first Japanese who came to to study with him, and Eastman was his first teaching position. After I came, many more arrived to study with him.
I worked so hard, and my playing improved. I was a very good student and practiced all the time. I started to try mini competitions—and started to win! Then I returned to Japan and won the biggest competition in Japan. We still were in contact, and Charlie invited me to a summer program in Bowdoin, Maine.
Ayako Oshima plays Debussy Première Rhapsody for clarinet and piano.
I was in the States maybe two years when we decided to get married. We married in December of 1989, eight years after we met.
GR: How did your parents feel about losing you to the States?
AO: I wasn’t sure because I didn’t want to leave Japan; my father was sick. After he passed away I decided and told my mother. But now Charlie’s very close, and she loves him.
GR: When did you get all these jobs? You’re working at Juilliard; you have some of the top positions in this country and you had to learn English.
AO: I’m lucky to be teaching music. If I were teaching science or something like that— no way! I was very lucky and met nice people.
GR: Do you still teach in three places?
AO: Yes. SUNY Purchase, Hartt in Connecticut, and Juilliard.
GR: Do you sleep?
AO: Barely.
GR: Is clarinet a popular instrument in Japan?
AO: Band is popular in elementary school, junior high school, and high school. All schools have bands, not orchestras. There are competitions every year. Have you ever seen the bands on YouTube? They memorize every piece.
The clarinet is basically the centerpiece of a band, and there are more clarinets than other instruments.
GR: How did band become so popular, since it’s not related to a traditional instrument?
AO: This is a long story and a curiosity. The band is for children to have things to do after school. It becomes a club; they get together to practice and spend time.
When I was in junior high school my school didn’t have a band. I helped start one. I had loved playing the recorder. Every child learns the recorder in elementary school, and it was my favorite pastime. After we started the band, of course I picked the clarinet, because the fingering is similar to the recorder.
GR: How old were you when you started the clarinet?
AO: I started at 12. I started the piano when I was four.
GR: How serious were you playing the piano?
AO: I was serious. My mother is a soprano singer of lieder—not an opera singer. My father was a scientist and a music lover. I have two sisters: the oldest is a violinist. My younger sister is a pianist.
Because of my father’s work, we moved to Paris, and I continued to study piano. The first time I was there I was not even 10. The second time I was 15 years old and I had just started playing clarinet. I was not really thinking about being a pianist, but I wanted to continue.
GR: As a young person, you knew you wanted to be a musician. Did you ever dream you’d land in New York?
AO: It was totally the opposite. I was sure that I was going to live in Paris to study music after finishing high school. Then I thought I should finish college in Japan. I went to Toho, which is the top music school in Japan. Ozawa and many other world-class musicians graduated from there. I wanted to be with the most wonderful musicians.
After graduating, I started teaching and went to the competition in Munich and heard Charlie. I knew this was the level of music making I was looking for. Of course, after we decided to get married I realized that if we want to be together, I’d have to live in New York.
GR: With three teaching positions, how do you have time to give concerts and to practice?
AO: I am practicing while I’m teaching. I demonstrate a lot.
GR: How many students do you have altogether?
AO: I have five or six students in pre-college Juilliard and at SUNY Purchase two or three. Ten at Hartt College.
GR: What are upcoming projects?
AO: Charlie and I started the Artena Foundation, which feels like full-time work. It’s the umbrella organization for two entities: the WA series, started in 2017, and the Sinfonietta.
The name “WA” carries a profound meaning in Japanese culture—a circle symbolizing harmony, completeness, and the unity of the past, present, and future. It also represents the spirit of collaboration and the belief that music can bring people together across cultures and generations. We enjoy listening to wonderful music, and we love good food. I always cook, and we have food after the chamber music concerts. We were interrupted by the pandemic and now we are starting again. We have two concerts at the end of this season.
We started orchestra concerts last year. But our concept extends beyond the concerts; it includes working with conservatory and grad students before they take auditions and go to the professional world, giving them an opportunity to work with major artists.
In a review of our last concert, Jeffrey Williams of the New York Concert Review wrote:
I had so many wonderful experiences, for example, spending time listening to Bobby Mann of the Juilliard String Quartet. I didn’t play with him, but I learned a lot from being with him and listening. Charlie and I wondered how we could carry that mentoring legacy into the future.
GR: Yes, those kinds of experiences are priceless. I received a master’s from Juilliard when that was the top degree you could get. I studied there with someone who was a master teacher and often went to my mentor Artur Balsam, a musician’s musician. After I graduated I recorded with Balsam; actually working with him was revelatory. These experiences become sacred memories for us and form our aesthetic.
AO: How do we continue these master experiences for the next generation? That’s why I’m teaching a lot; I’m giving all my energy to young people.
I’m so happy because I know what I’m doing is right. Nowadays, there’s too much information. But what musicians like Charlie and Carol Wincenc can teach young musicians before they are launched in their careers is amazing!
GR: You don’t have free time… Except I’ve been lucky enough to have had your food.
OA: I love to cook! I host and prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for approximately 30 students who are unable to return home during the Thanksgiving holiday. I know it’s ridiculous but the thing is, if I stay in a hotel I get frustrated. I have a need to cook!!
GR: You’ve also started the Licorice Ensemble. Why licorice?
AO: The clarinet is also called the licorice stick. It’s a jazz-world expression, originating from the black candy. I founded the New York Licorice Ensemble. All the members studied with my husband and have received awards at many international competitions. The members are a variety of ages and have performed in Asia, the United States, and Europe.
NY Licorice Ensemble plays Gershwin, Porgy and Bess,
Act I: “Summertime” (arr. Satoshi Ipponjima for chamber ensemble).
GR: You seem to have an organizing gene! I guess you’re never going to sleep again. What other stand-out concerts have you organized?
AO: In 2011 Japan had a huge earthquake. I began to think of how to help. I organized a huge benefit concert here. I asked Bobby Mann to play, and Charlie conducted. Many people came and we raised a lot of money for Japan.
GR: To what do you attribute your varied reach as a musician?
AO: I grew up in an insane asylum. Actually I grew up in Tokyo, but in the summer, we always visited my mother’s home, which is in one of the biggest and oldest private mental hospitals in a suburb of Tokyo. My grandfather started the hospital. On my mother’s side everybody is a doctor, and there were always big ideas and influences in our home.
GR: What did you learn from those summer experiences?
AO: People are pure. One woman was singing all the time. Her song was so beautiful and when she was singing, she was happy.
A Dead Woman’s Memoir
Gena Raps, Persimmon Tree Music Editor, has performed internationally and across the United States. Her recordings of Mozart, Brahms, and Dvorak can be found on Musical Heritage Society, Arabesque, and Naxos among others. She has taught at the Juilliard School, Sarah Lawrence College, the Mannes College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and has received numerous prizes and honors. She has been on the jury for competitions at the Juilliard School and the Fulbright Fellowship. She recently released an album of the complete Haydn flute trios with flutist Carol Wincenc.