John Corbett

American actor and country musician

John Corbett is a Scottish clarinetist, soloist with the Philharmonisches Orchester Hagen and co-founder of Duo Imaginaire, born near Edinburgh and currently based in Germany. He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and later with Professor Hans Deinzer at the Music Academy in Hannover. Corbett began his career as a principal clarinet of the European Community Youth Orchestra for three years, playing under Claudio Abbado, Herbert von Karajan and Carlo Maria Giulini. He also played as a member of Junge Deutsche Philharmonie (the German Student Orchestra), and later continued performing as an ensemble member and soloist with Ensemble Modern and MusikFabrik. He produced concerts and recordings with conductors such as Peter Eötvös, Heinz Holliger, Pierre Boulez, Ernest Bour and Friedrich Cerha, and played as a guest with Asko Ensemble (Amsterdam), Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris) and The Chamber Orchestra Of Europe, as well as other prominent new music and contemporary classical ensembles. Since 2007, John Corbett has been performing and recording in a duo with harpist Simone Seiler. They’re trying to develop and establish an unlikely duo of clarinet and harp as a legitimate ensemble, and available repertoire of original works for this combination is rapidly growing with contributions from Frank Zabel, Stefan Heucke, Dietrich Hahne, Jörg Birkenkötter, Martin Christoph Redel, Gordon Kampe, Manfred Stahnke, Andrew Digby, Yasuko Yamaguchi, Kumiko Omura, Matthew Orlovich, Carlos Micháns, James Wishart, Frido ter Beek, Takayuki Rai and other contemporary composers.