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Principal Clarinet, Bill and Peggy Lyons Chair

Raymond Santos

Raymond Santos has served as principal clarinet of the Kansas City Symphony since September of 2008. Previously, he was a clarinet fellow with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. Santos has played as guest principal clarinet for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Oregon Symphony. He received multiple fellowships to the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Center, where he was conferred the Gino B. Cioffi Memorial Prize for exceptional musical achievement. He also performed at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and the National Orchestral Institute in Washington D.C. In addition to his orchestral activities, he has played chamber music throughout the United States, Europe, and China. Originally from West Chester, Ohio, Santos received his Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Southern California, under the tutelage of revered pedagogue Yehuda Gilad. In high school, he studied with Richard Hawley, former principal clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Other principal teachers have included Monica Kaenzig, and Sandra Snyder. Santos is a Buffet Crampon USA performing artist, and plays exclusively on Buffet Crampon clarinets.


Raymond Santos

Raymond Santos has served as principal clarinet of the Kansas City Symphony since September of 2008. Previously, he was a clarinet fellow with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. Santos has played as guest principal clarinet for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Oregon Symphony. He received multiple fellowships to the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Center, where he was conferred the Gino B. Cioffi Memorial Prize for exceptional musical achievement. He also performed at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and the National Orchestral Institute in Washington D.C. In addition to his orchestral activities, he has played chamber music throughout the United States, Europe, and China. Originally from West Chester, Ohio, Santos received his Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Southern California, under the tutelage of revered pedagogue Yehuda Gilad. In high school, he studied with Richard Hawley, former principal clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Other principal teachers have included Monica Kaenzig, and Sandra Snyder. Santos is a Buffet Crampon USA performing artist, and plays exclusively on Buffet Crampon clarinets.

Absolutely not! My mother was a high school chorus teacher. She was also the accordion state champion of Massachusetts!

It isn’t possible for me to list just one. The composers that would be the highest on my favorites list would be Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Stravinsky, and Ligeti.

It would be a quintessential dramatic romantic-comedy, with breath-taking action sequences and a dash of scientific fantasy. Hugh Jackman would play me, of course (people frequently confuse the two of us together). I hear there’s already Oscar buzz.

Find the best teacher you can have! I’ve been extremely fortunate to have the best teachers as a student, and without their expert instruction, guidance, and support, I wouldn’t have my career as principal clarinetist of this orchestra.

Bluestem

As a child, I had an obsession with pushing buttons (surely a source of annoyance to any fellow elevator occupants). I was drawn to the clarinet because it had the combination of a sound that I liked and the right number of buttons to push.

Working Girl, Clueless, and The Matrix. I have eclectic tastes.

Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ

West Chester, Ohio. It’s a suburb thirty minutes north of downtown Cincinnati.

Quinoa, black beans, and ground flax seed. I have this combination of foods every morning for breakfast. It tastes like cardboard, but it really gives me everything I need for a good start to the day.