Clarinet reeds mitchell lurie biography

Mitchell Lurie World-Renowned Clarinetist Taught at USC

Mitchell Lurie, a world-renowned clarinetist and clarinet teacher who taught for many years at USC and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, has died. He was 86.

Lurie, who had been in ill health in recent years, died of pneumonia Monday at his home in West Los Angeles, said his son, Dr. Alan Lurie.

Brooklyn native who grew up in Los Angeles, Lurie was the principal clarinetist for the Pittsburgh Symphony and then the Chicago Symphony in the late 1940s. He then launched a long career in Hollywood as a top clarinetist for film studios and became a distinguished chamber musician, who may have been best known for his numerous performances with the Budapest String Quartet and the Muir String Quartet.

Pablo Casals, the great Spanish cellist and conductor with whom Lurie once performed, called him the “ideal clarinetist."

“He was the preeminent clarinetist of the latter part of the 20th century, the '5