05/26/2026
🎶 Musician Spotlight: Eric Wachmann🎶
Dr. Eric Wachmann is Professor of Music at Wartburg College and Principal Clarinet with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony. He has performed extensively with professional orchestral, chamber, and jazz ensembles in the United States, Canada and Europe. Dr. Wachmann has performed with Yo Yo Ma, Nadia Solerno-Sonnenberg, Midori, and Peter Schickele, as well as with Orchestra Iowa, the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Windsor Symphony, and Toledo Symphony. In addition, he has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Ozone Jazz Festival, and the North Sea Jazz Festival. Dr. Wachmann’s chamber performances include being the first North American musician invited to perform at the renowned Sophia Concert Hall in Polatsk, Belarus. In 2013, he toured China and Japan with the Wartburg Wind Ensemble where he gave numerous performances of Scott McAllister’s “Black Dog.”
Dr. Wachmann has recorded two critically acclaimed CD’s with pianist Ted Reuter. The first, released in 2002, features the clarinet music of the French composers group known as “Les Six.” This recording includes the recording premiere of Tailleferres’ “Menuet” and Auric’s “Imaginee III.” The second recording, released in 2006, features the clarinet music of Brahms and Schumann.
Besides his work on clarinet, Dr. Wachmann is also an accomplished shakuhachi performer and is a member of the Ki-Sui-An shakuhachi dojo with Yoshio Kurahashi as patron. He has given numerous shakuhachi performances regionally as both a soloist and as part of a mixed-media performance group presenting the imagery, poetry, and traditional music of Japan.
Wachmann holds a Bachelor of Music/Performance degree from the University of Ottawa, a Master of Music from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Fred Ormand, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he studied with clarinetist Kelly Burke.
Discover more about all our amazing musicians here:
https://www.wcfsymphony.org/about/musicians/