Patrick Messina “The Magic Clarinet” – Yehudi Menuhin
Patrick Messina is well known to orchestras and audiences as one of the leading clarinetists of our times. In 2003 Patrick Messina became Principal Clarinet of the Orchestre National de France under Kurt Masur’s direction.
From 1996 to 2003, Patrick has worked with the Metropolitan Opera in New York under the baton of James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Leonard Slatkin and he is regularly invited as guest Principal clarinetist with some of the best orchestra in the world, like the Royal Concertgebauw Orchestra in Amsterdam and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink and others.
A frequent soloist with major orchestras, Patrick Messina has performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de Cannes, the Philharmonie der Nationen, the Orchestre National d’Ile de France, the Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the Kioi Sinfonietta ( Tokyo ) and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine under the direction of Riccardo Muti, Trevor Pinnock, Bernard Haitink, Yehudi Menuhin, Tan Dun, Daniele Gatti, Kristjan Jarvi, Jaap Van Zweden and John Axelrod.
Born in Nice, France, of Sicilian and Spanish parents, Mr. Messina began taking lessons with his father, and continued his studies with Guy Deplus, Michel Arrignon at the Paris Conservatory, Franklin Cohen at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Ricardo Morales in New York’s Mannes College.
