“Loren Kitt, who served for more than 40 years as one of the National Symphony Orchestra’s de facto leaders in his role as principal clarinetist and became a quiet cornerstone of Washington’s classical music scene, died Sept. 4 in a hospital in Glens Falls, N.Y.,” writes Anne Midgette in Thursday’s (9/7) Washington Post. “Mr. Kitt was … a founding member of the Smithsonian’s resident chamber ensembles in the 1970s. He also taught and mentored students at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the University of Maryland. One of his signature pieces was Aaron Copland’s clarinet concerto, which he first performed at the first-ever Capitol Concert in 1979, under the direction of Copland himself…. Loren Wayne Kitt was born in Bremerton, Wash., on July 8, 1941. He began performing at 3…. After graduating in 1963 from the Curtis Institute … he was principal clarinet with the Milwaukee Symphony and taught at Oberlin College in Ohio before Antal Dorati, then the music director of the NSO, hired him in 1970. Mr. Kitt played his final official concerts with the NSO last February, but came out of retirement to play a final time … in June, one of Christoph Eschenbach’s final concerts.”
Posted September 8, 2017
