Jennifer Showalter is a versatile professional freelance clarinetist in Los Angeles, California. Her self-produced debut solo CD, European Adventure, was released in February of 2009 and has been featured on classical radio stations in the United States and Canada. Ms. Showalter has been principal clarinet of many symphony, opera, ballet, chamber, and musical theater orchestras and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Long Beach Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, Long Beach Ballet, Symphony in the Glen, California Philharmonic, Asia America Symphony, Pasadena POPS, and the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, as well as many regional orchestras. Ms. Showalter has performed with Civic Light Opera productions at the Ahmanson Theater, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Mark Taper Forum, the Schubert Theater and the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. She was seen as principal clarinet of the Hour of Power Orchestra, televised weekly worldwide from the world-renowned Crystal Cathedral, for over a decade, performing with soloists such as Roger Williams, Eugene Fodor, John Tesh, and James Galway. Active as a recording artist, she can be heard on various orchestral and chamber CDs and videos. As a soloist and chamber musician, Ms. Showalter has appeared with the Grammy Award-winning Southwest Chamber Music, the Long Beach Symphony Wind Quintet, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Wind Quintet, the North Wind Quintet, and the Lake Avenue Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Showalter received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance from California State University Long Beach, where she was a student of David Atkins, clarinetist of the Westwood Wind Quintet, and William Powell. Graduating with Great Distinction, Ms. Showalter was elected to membership in Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Kappa Phi. While earning a Master of Music Degree in Clarinet Performance from Northwestern University, she studied with former principal clarinetist of the Chicago Symphony, Clark Brody, and former principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Symphony, Robert Marcellus, and was the recipient of a Graduate Assistantship. As a scholarship musician at the Music Academy of the West summer festival in Santa Barbara, she studied with noted teacher Fred Ormand. At additional festivals, Ms. Showalter performed in Master Classes for: Sabine Meyer, Larry Combs, Stanley Hasty, and Peter Hadcock. In Los Angeles, she pursued further study with: Gary Gray, Gary Bovyer, Monica Kaenzig, Mitchell Lurie and Steve Roberts.