Berginald Rash
Co-Founder & Artistic Director
Since beginning the clarinet in 1998, Berginald Rash has set himself apart as a consummate musician having served as co-principal clarinet of the Bay Youth Symphony Orchestra of Virginia. In 2000 he was selected as a Young Artist for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in Lenox, Massachusetts where he participated in the clarinet workshop and the Young Artist Wind Ensemble under the baton of Frank Battisti. That same year Berginald played bass clarinet with the Virginia Symphony in their performance of Shostikovich 7th Symphony conducted by then assistant conductor Wes Kenney. In 2002 he was selected as soloist for the Virginia Commonwealth University Festival of Winds and Percussion.
While pursuing his bachelor degrees in Spanish and Clarinet performance, Mr. Rash took part in many extra-musical activities. A recipient of the 2005 Winthrop- King Undergraduate Study abroad scholarship, he performed in Valencia, Spain with Florida State professor of voice, Larry Gerber. That same year he premiered Mary Kelsay’s 1:1 for cello and clarinet with the FSU chapter of Society of Composers, Inc. and co-organized a student led chamber music recital that included major works by Tchaikovsky and Brahms. He has served as Principal Clarinet with the Florida State University Philharmonia Orchestra and 2nd clarinet with the Florida State Chamber Orchestra, a group comprised of faculty and students.
In 2007, Berginald was a finalist for the Colorado College Summer Music Festival and a semi-finalist for the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. In August, Mr. Rash served as Principal Clarinet with the Milwaukee Summer Philharmonia and Philharmonia Racine under the baton of Ralph Lane. In December, he was the grand prize winner of the 2007-2008 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition with Scott McAllister’s Black Dog and performed Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, Weber’s Clarinet Quintet, and was featured soloist in Rebecca Clarke’s Prelude, Allegro, and Pastorale for Wisconsin State Senator Lena C. Taylor and former Wisconsin State Senator Gwen Moore at the Ozaukee County NAACP convention.
A champion of new music, Mr. Rash commissioned Ted Gellar to write Sketches in Realization, a quintet for E-flat clarinet and string quartet. Berginald can be heard playing basset clarinet with the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Wind Ensemble on their recording of Mozart’s Serenade No. 10 for winds in B-flat, K. 361. In 2010, Mr. Rash joined the Lake Tahoe Summer Music Festival for the inaugural season of its Orchestral Academy under the direction of conductor, Timm Rolek. Berginald has performed in master classes with Steve Cohen, Mitch Estrin, Ariana Ghez, Ian Grietzer, Bil Jackson, Ricardo Morales, Sean Osborn, Rebecca Rischin, Ethan Sloane, Michael Webster, and Charles West.
Berginald holds both a Bachelor of Music, cum laude and Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, cum laude from Florida State University, and a Master’s of Music from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts where he was a Chancellor’s Award recipient. He has been coached by Eric Ohlsson, Evan Jones, Roy Delp, Jeff Keesecker, Eva Amsler, Steve Barta, Mark Nuccio, Lewis Rosove and Ted Soluri. His teachers include F. Edward Knakal, Deborah Bish, Frank Kowalsky, and Todd Levy.
