Mr. Gray was appointed Full Professor in Clarinet in the UCLA Music Department in 1993 where he also teaches the Woodwind Chamber Ensemble class. He has a Clarinet studio of 12-15 private students each year, and his students perform regularly in the UCLA Philharmonia, UCLA Wind Ensemble, Woodwind Chamber Ensembles, Collaborative Piano Chamber class...plus their individual Junior, Senior and Graduate Recitals.

During the course of his teaching, it often becomes necessary to include career counseling, i.e. suggesting "combination careers" to include teaching, playing, music management, etc., in order to increase the students' options after graduation. The importance of learning all the instruments in the clarinet family is also stressed. For those students interested in studio work, he often takes them to sessions with him so that they can observe first hand what takes place. The strong emphasis on accurate sight reading in such work points out the need for students to be thoroughly versed in scale and chord patterns, to recognize phrase groupings and to practice sight-reading new material non-stop.   

In a profile on Gray by Richard Ginell in Windplayer Magazine, Gray comments,

"I see part of my teaching mission as helping expose my students to what is going on in the whole musical world, rather than just what they might be studying on clarinet at that time, and if at all possible, get them off campus to hear the great live music made by local and visiting artists in Los Angeles. I also encourage them to play with groups off campus and to take advantage of Los Angeles for the music center that it is."

As for orchestra auditions, he continues,

"Students of mine who have done well on auditions have usually done many of them in a row. A former student of mine, John Bruce Yeh, now in the Chicago Symphony, won that position after coming close in two prior auditions that same year."

To read the complete article, please click here.

Often, parents and students ask about my former students. Here is a partial list of some of my former students and their many accomplishments:

Thoughts on Clarinet Playing/Teaching
and Music in General

Simply put, I try to help my clarinet students become the best musicians they can be...whatever their career objectives. If the learning process is correctly defined as "guided growth," I try to guide well and stay out of the way when possible. After the first year or two, I think the teacher-student relationship, especially in the area of private lessons is one of gradually letting go and motivating the young instrumentalist to become a more and more independent artist/scholar. Of course the rate of letting go depends very much on the talent and progress of the individual student. Although each student has unique qualities, both as a musician and a person, I've developed certain common concepts and techniques which apply to all. To begin, I've included a brief description of how I have my students organize their practice time and approach making music on their own instrument.

To get maximum benefit from limited practice time, organize time available into three segments, usually of equal duration. (Depending on the needs of the moment, i.e., just prior to a Recital, repertoire comes first.)
Scales / Exercises	Etudes	Music
Major, minor scales, chords, etc. Long tone studies Staccato studies Rhythm studies Klose Method Baermann Part 3, etc. Opperman Daily Studies	Etude books which put scales, chords, etc. to good use - help solve technical problems, train musicality, etc. Rose 40 Studies, Books I & II Rose 32 Studies David Hite - Melodious Studies Baermann, Jean-Jean, Cavallini Harold Owen contemporary Etudes	Mozart Concerto Brahms Sonatas Weber Concerti & Grand Duo Bartok, Stravinsky, Arnold, Copland, etc. All sonata, concerto, chamber music, etc. Orchestral excerpts

To read the complete article, please click here.

Some Ideas About Phrasing
The Windplayer Magazine
February 1994

I was giving a master class in London and the students played well. But when I asked, "What did you have in mind for the phrasing of this?" —most of them had very little in mind. And if they did, it wasn't coming out of the clarinet. It didn't sound sincere. It's so tempting to concentrate on the fingering, that's all some students think about.

Well, that's like going to the one-yard line (in football) and not going over. Learning to phrase in a convincing way is crucial. Otherwise, the audience is not getting anything personal from you and you're not getting the benefit of the art form. If I sit through a whole evening listening to someone playing a master's recital, and at the end I feel I don't know their insides at all, it's been a waste of time.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Students Should Diversify
From an article in
Clarinet/Saxophone Journal of Great Britain
September 1989

Music can be a tough business and I like to think that if one door is closed to a student then another may be opened. Sometimes, of course, you have to bang hard on the doors - generally they don't open by themselves! If a student is leaning heavily towards classical music I'll encourage him to tackle jazz as well; if jazz is the main interest then I'll encourage him to tackle classical. I think it's good to be as versatile as possible. I encourage my students to improve their sight-reading; some of them are none too keen on it, but I refuse to let them opt out. I want my students to have a career in music even if they can't, for instance, secure an orchestral position, and so I really believe in getting my students to diversify.

To read the complete article, please click here.

over 25 commissions and numerous premiere performances. In addition to performing, Gray taught a Master Class with clarinet students who attended the International Chamber Music Workshop.

International Chamber Music Program in Florence, Italy
California State University
June 17 - 30, 2007

Gary Gray joined the Alexander String Quartet of San Francisco for an International Chamber Music program in Florence, Italy on June 17-30. This was sponsored by CSU Summer Arts, a special division of the California State University network.

The contact information for this CSU Summer Arts program is:
csusummerarts.org

The contact musician is:
Professor Sandy Wilson
asq4@sfsu.edu
(415) 405-0688 ext.2

Qualified students of strings, piano and clarinet were accepted to this two week program. They rehearsed and performed public recitals, with coaching by the Alexander Quartet and resident faculty, including Prof. Gray.

For Curriculum and Application Information

Undergraduate Counselor
Al Bradley
310.825.4768
abradley@arts.ucla.edu

Graduate Counselor
Sandra McKerroll
310.825.4769
sandram@arts.ucla.edu

For possible Master Classes or Clinics outside of UCLA, contact Mr. Gray's personal managers:
Valerie Bernstein and/or Ina Scheid
310.287.1031
valerie@sempremusica.com