THOMAS, David
David Thomas is one of Australia’s leading orchestral clarinettists and clarinet teachers. He grew up in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne and studied clarinet with Phillip Miechel (ex-MSO principal clarinet) at the University of Melbourne and Roger Salander at the Vienna Conservatorium of Music.
His first permanent orchestral position was Associate Principal Clarinet with WASO, joining the orchestra in 1998 with Allan Meyer as his Section Principal Clarinet. Since 2000 he has been Principal Clarinet of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and since 2005 he has taught at the Australian National Academy of Music, helping a whole generation of young Australian clarinettists find their feet professionally.
“Unfortunately I am a little too young to have heard some of the really important pioneering Australian clarinettists in the flesh — Don Westlake in Sydney, Isabel Carter in Melbourne, and Jack Harrison in Perth. But I did get to chat with Jack after WASO concerts he attended, and I’ve heard plenty of anecdotes from musicians who worked with him. For a performance of Mahler’s 1st Symphony towards the end of his playing career, I’m told the WASO clarinet section delighted in loading Jack up with all the possible doublings on his 3rd clarinet part: bass clarinet as well as clarinets in Bb, A, C and Eb. It must have taken him half an hour to pack up after those concerts. My favourite attributed quote is one of reassurance to a young clarinettist colleague addressing perhaps our biggest fear in concert: “If you don’t bust a note occasionally, you’re not trying hard enough”. I am quite sure this doesn’t reflect any sort of lackadaisical attitude from Jack, but rather a wonderfully Australian attitude to work: quality really does matter, but let’s not get worked up if something goes wrong, and let’s make sure to encourage our colleagues to give it their all. In this sense, I am proud to (try to) follow in Jack’s footsteps, and the experience of working in the section he had led so effectively for so many years helped me develop the skills I needed as a section leader in the orchestra of my own home town.”