Margaret Thornhill has performed as a soloist in the United
States and Europe, making her New York recital debut at Merkin
Hall in 1982 and her UK debut at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in
1991. Critics have raved about her performances of the Mozart
Concerto, K. 622 as being "music of incomparable
grace and almost unbearable poignance. Thornhill's performance
was as loveable as Mozart was loving" (Peninsula Times-Tribune),
of the Stravinsky Three Pieces as "Thornhill's
musicality, technique, and control are extraordinary"(Palo Alto
Times.) John Rockwell, former lead music critic
of the New York Times, called her performances of Rorem, Brahms,
Levy and Berg a recital "nicely planned and
nicely played."
Margaret was for ten years founder/director and clarinetist with
the Matrix Chamber Ensemble, a Los Angeles-based 20th century
group which won numerous local, state and national grants and
awards, was selected for the touring roster of the California
Arts Council, and performed for Community Concerts. She
collaborates as a chamber musician with Los Angeles
Philharmonic, recording studio and LA Opera principals, and is a
member of "Category V", a woodwind quintet with oboist David
Kossoff, bassoonist John Campbell, hornist Nathan Campbell, and
flutist Julie Long. She performs as a duo with pianist Twyla
Meyer, and her first solo CD album will be released in 2009 on
the Arundo label.
On historical clarinets, she has performed and recorded for
Centaur records with the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, with the
Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra at the Getty Museum, and with the
chamber groups Divertimento and Clarion.
Margaret writes a column about clarinet choir literature for THE
CLARINET, the journal of the International Clarinet Association,
and contributes articles on clarinet technique and pedagogy for
British Clarinet and Saxophone and Australian Clarinet and
Saxophone. In July of 2007, the Los Angeles Clarinet Choir, a 14
member community group she founded and conducts, was the
featured clarinet choir at the International Clarinet
Association Clarinetfest in Vancouver, Canada. A native of
California, Margaret holds degrees from the University of
California and Stanford University, where she earned a DMA in
performance practice. Her principal teacher was the legendary
Rosario Mazzeo, with whom she studied for nine years and was his
assistant for two. She has also studied with Leon Russianoff, of
the Juilliard School, with David Breeden, late principal of the
San Francisco Symphony, and Colin Lawson, head of the Royal
College of Music.
A former member of the faculty of UCSC and Stanford University,
Margaret was for five years professor of instrumental music at
Occidental College, and is Adjunct Professor of Clarinet at
Concordia University, Irvine. She coaches chamber music for CMNC
(SF Bay Area) and the Chamber Music Society of Santa Barbara,
and in the past for the San Diego Chamber Music Workshop and the
Cabrillo Summer Academy. In 2006, she founded the the Claremont
Clarinet Festival, where she is the master teacher in a summer
workshop for advanced adult players in residence at Pomona
College the first week of June. She also conducts master classes
throughout California.
Margaret currently has a flourishing private studio in Los
Angeles where her advanced students typically describe her
teaching as "transforming."