Biography
Benjamin Lulich, clarinet, joined the faculty of UW School of Music in Fall of 2016, as an artist-in-residence in the instrumental performance program.
Benjamin Lulich is the Principal Clarinet of the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. He has held positions in Orange County’s Pacific Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Colorado Music Festival and Festival Mozaic, and has performed frequently with The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Pasadena Symphony, IRIS Orchestra and many other ensembles.
Additionally, Lulich is Principal Clarinet of the Sunriver Music Festival and has performed with the Hollywood Studio Orchestra on numerous films and records albums, including Water for Elephants, The Tourist, Monsters University, Godzilla, and the Oscar-winning score for Life of Pi. In 2013 he performed as Principal Clarinet for Yamaha’s 125th Anniversary Concert, which featured Elton John and many other performers; the concert was broadcast live to the world over the internet.
Also interested in chamber music and new music, Lulich has been a guest artist for concerts throughout the United States and abroad. Lulich was a member of the Second Instrumental Unit, a contemporary music ensemble based in New York City, where he took part in a concert honoring Milton Babbitt at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. As a recitalist and soloist, he has performed at the International ClarinetFest and was featured as a soloist with Pacific Symphony and Sunriver Music Festival on several occasions. On New Year’s Eve 2013 he performed with Jeff Tyzik and Ko-ichiro Yamamoto and the Seattle Symphony in the Jelly Roll Morton Suite.
The recipient of many awards and prizes, Lulich studied at Interlochen Arts Academy, Cleveland Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, Pacific Music Festival and Music Academy of the West, and his teachers include Richard Hawkins, Franklin Cohen, David Shifrin, Fred Ormand and Laura DeLuca.