Welcome, Jonathan Gunn!

The Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin welcomed one of its newest faculty members recently, assistant professor of clarinet Jonathan Gunn. I had a chat with him this week, about his impressions of Austin and his concert on September 12.

Five Things About Jonathan Gunn:

1) It was love at first sight with the city of Austin!

“I love Austin! There's something about this place that makes it just so easy to like it here. But the job at UT, and the town--I just knew as soon as I got here for my interview process, that if I were offered the job, I would take it. My wife and I love it here, we feel like we're settling in already. That a bit strange for us, since my wife plays in the Chicago Symphony [Jennifer Gunn, piccolo], and she'll continue to do that, and we'll go back and forth whenever we can, to see each other.”

2) The clarinet was not his first instrument.

“When I was in school, my primary instrument was the violin--I was terrible at it, and I didn't really enjoy it. I wanted to play trumpet. My parents met with the band director, and it was decided for me, actually--I was going to play the clarinet. I think it was a scheme to get me to play an instrument that wasn't that loud!”

3) He's fired up about his new job at the Butler School.

“The most exciting part for me is playing with my new colleagues. It's always exciting to work with new people, and the colleagues I have at the Butler School of Music are truly fantastic. It is one of the primary, if not the main reason I decided to take this job. What better way to start than to play with those folks! I've known Anton Nel for a long time, and it was actually his prodding that got me doing this recital so early in the semester.”

4) He loves the French clarinet repertoire, so his concert program on Sept. 12 includes music by Poulenc, Widor, and Messiaen.

“The Messiaen is really just such a spectacular piece of music. The third movement of his 'Quartet for the End of Time' is for solo clarinet. It's called 'Abyss of the Birds', so it obviously has some programmatic elements. This middle movement is often played by itself by clarinetists, it's spectacular when played in the middle of the piece, but works quite well by itself. It's really a nice piece to program just to have some variety in instrumentation.”

5) He has a unique background.

“I was born in England, my mother's Australian, and my father is from New Zealand. They had moved to England for my dad to finish a degree, and they ended up staying. We moved to Atlanta when I was eleven. So even though I was born in England, I have Australian citizenship, and all of my extended family lives in either Australia or New Zealand. I actually have no family in England. Most people find that strange- when people ask me where I'm from it takes me ten minutes to explain!”

Jonathan Gunn will perform music by Widor, Poulenc, Messiaen, Schumann, and Weber on Monday, September 12 at 7:30 PM in Jessen Auditorium, with pianist Anton Nel, flutist Marianne Gedigian, oboist Andrew Parker, bassoonist Kristin Wolfe Jensen, and hornist Patrick Hughes. Visit http://music.utexas.edu/events/1159-jonathan-gunn-clarinet to learn more!