ClarinetFest® Program Archives and Database (1973 – 2024)
created by Jana Starling, Emily Kerski with support from Western University
In 2022 during the planning of the 50th anniversary of the ICA ClarinetFest®, I learned that a homebase of conference performances, works and lectures did not exist and what did exist was a large selection of donated program booklets in the Special Collections at the University of Maryland. This realization sparked the commitment for the next 2 years to create a conference database, one that would represent and honour all of the artists, composers, repertoire, topics and exhibitors that came together each year to give us a half century of conferences.
Emily Kerski (US Army Band “Pershing’s Own”) traveled to the Special Collections in Maryland and spent hours upon days in the library scanning every page of the catalogued booklets. After hunting down and scanning the program years that were not found in the Collection, several university clarinet students were hired, thanks to Western University (Ontario, Canada), to assist me in digitizing the programs. The digitization process, typing the recitals and lectures information into spreadsheets, took about 10 months and resulted in the cataloguing of over 10,000 performed works, 700+ lectures, 150 masterclasses and countless artists. The remaining time was used to edit and clarify the program information, add composer countries and dates where possible, and categorize the repertoire; all required a significant amount of internet searching. The final step was adding the list of exhibitors (1300+) and their narratives.
We created a database contained in 3 spreadsheets to provide the most flexible use and sorting capabilities. The spreadsheets are: Repertoire & Performers, Lectures, and Exhibitors. Repertoire & Performers can be sorted according to the columns of category, instrumentation, year, composer, composer country, premieres, etc. The column ‘Clarinet Performers’ either lists: a) a single clarinetist name (or a single clarinetist name and in brackets the ensemble’s name); or b) multiple clarinetists’ names (except for choir members) but in no particular order. This listing makes this column less usable for sorting, but conducting a name search will provide the necessary information. Lectures and Exhi
Despite all attempts otherwise, human error can occur. Mistakes and lack of adequate information could have occurred from artist submissions, from booklet creators, database typists and from the final transferring of the data from multiple preliminary spreadsheets. I would love to see this database be as accurate and informative as possible and therefore welcome corrections. If members find any issues or recognize mistakes in their own performance contributions, we would be grateful to receive the corrections or missing information and happily update the data regularly.