John Bruce Yeh joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1977, the first Asian musician ever appointed to the CSO, and is now the longest-serving clarinetist in CSO history. Having been appointed when he was 19 to the CSO by Sir Georg Solti as Clarinetist and Solo Bass Clarinetist, John is currently Assistant Principal Clarinet and Solo E-flat Clarinet of the orchestra. He served the CSO as Acting Principal Clarinet from 2008-2011, and has also performed as guest principal of The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Guangzhou Symphony in China, and the Seoul Philharmonic in Korea. A prize winner at both the 1982 Munich International Music Competition and the 1985 Naumburg Clarinet Competition in New York, Yeh continues to solo with orchestras and perform on chamber music series and festivals around the globe. A Yamaha Performing Artist since 1990, John most recently toured China under the auspices of the Yamaha Corporation. Yeh has performed concertos with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on several occasions, including the 1998 American premiere of Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Concerto with Pierre Boulez conducting, and the 1993 performance of Carl Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto with Neeme Järvi. A concert recording of the Nielsen was released on the CSO CD set Soloists of the Orchestra II: From the Archives, vol. 15. In 2004, Yeh was featured in Leonard Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue and Riffs in collaboration with the Hubbard Street Dance Company and the CSO conducted by David Robertson. An enthusiastic champion of new music, John Bruce Yeh is the dedicatee of new works for clarinet by numerous composers, ranging from Ralph Shapey to John Williams. His more than 20 solo and chamber music recordings have earned worldwide critical acclaim. A 2007 release by Naxos is a CD titled Synergy, of single and double concertos with clarinet featuring John, his wife Teresa, and his daughter Molly. In 2023 Cedille Records released Chicago Clarinet Classics, John’s new recording of 6 compositions by 20th and 21st Century Chicago composers. It debuted at #2 of the Billboard Classical Chart and continues to earn rave reviews. Yeh is director of Chicago Pro Musica, which received the 1985 Grammy Award as “Best New Classical Artist.” He is also a founding member of the Grammy-nominated Chicago Symphony Winds. With clarinetist Teresa Reilly, erhu virtuoso Wang Guowei, and pipa virtuoso Yang Wei, Yeh formed Birds and Phoenix, an innovative quartet dedicated to musical exploration by bridging Eastern and Western musical cultures. Born in Washington, D.C. to music-loving scientist parents and raised in Los Angeles, John attended UCLA for two years in the pre-medical program. While at UCLA he won the Frank Sinatra Musical Performance Award and performed with the American Youth Symphony under Mehli Mehta. In 1975 he transferred to the Juilliard School in New York where he studied clarinet and bass clarinet with Joseph Allard. Other influential mentors include Gordon Herritt, Gary Gray, Michele Zukovsky, Harold Wright, Marcel Moyse, Ray Still, and Allan Dennis. John attended music schools in Aspen, Tanglewood, and Marlboro. Passionately committed to music education, John has taught master classes at the Juilliard, Eastman, and Manhattan Schools of Music, The Cleveland Institute, and many universities and arts academies worldwide. Serving on the faculty of the DePaul University School of music from 1979-2006, John is currently on the artist-faculties of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College for the Performing Arts and Midwest Young Artists Conservatory in Fort Sheridan, Illinois. John Bruce Yeh is the proud father of Jenna Yeh, a culinary artist and wine specialist in Chicago; Molly Yeh, a percussionist and Food Network TV personality in Minnesota; and Mia Reilly-Yeh, a Business major at the University of Notre Dame.
