Charlotte Kies
Clarinet
Charlotte Kies is an international award-winning clarinetist, acclaimed educator, and host of several annual clarinet festival events. Read her full bio below.
About Charlotte Kies
Charlotte Kies’ biography
Performance Experience
Charlotte Kies is an international award-winning clarinetist currently residing in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She is an Ishimori Artist, a member of the Ohio Light Opera Orchestra, and an Adjunct Professor of Clarinet and Music Theory at the Lee University School of Music, and Adjunct Instructor of Clarinet at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga.
Dr. Kies has appeared in concert with numerous orchestras, including the Chattanooga, Huntsville, Steamboat, and Evansville symphony orchestras, as well as the the Pittsburgh Festival Orchestra. In 2017, she was named the Second Prize Winner of the International Clarinet Association’s Orchestral Audition Competition. She has performed under the batons of Carl Topilow, J. Lynn Thompson, Steven Byess, Ernest Richardson, Kayoko Dan, and Michael Jinbo.
Publications and Courses
In 2017 Dr. Kies authored a novel clarinet method book that helps young students design an effective, time-efficient practice routine. The book helps students form lasting practice habits, addresses all fundamental skills required of playing the clarinet, and shows students how to build an effective routine on their own.
In 2016 Dr. Kies designed a rigorous, four-semester technique course to help her undergraduate students achieve absolute fluency in the instrument. She has taught this course to students at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and currently offers the course to students enrolled in her Lee University studio.
Since 2018 Dr. Kies has been the host of an annual clarinet festival in southeast Tennessee. In 2018 she hosted the Lee University ClarinetFest, a day-long event with instrument repair clinics, master classes, trial instruments and equipment, clarinet choir, and a mock audition competition. In 2020 she hosted the UTC Clarinet Competition and Festival entirely online. The event was sponsored by Buffet & Crampon. In 2020 she launched the Chattanooga Clarinet Academy, and hosted the entire 8-week festival online.
During the summer months of her academic career Charlotte furthered her education attending such festivals as the Orford centre d’arts and the Pierre Monteux School and Music Festival.
Charlotte received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, her Master of Music degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and recently completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Her primary teachers were James Campbell, Michael Rusinek, Jonathan Gunn, and Ben Freimuth.
Festivals and Education
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Chattanooga Clarinet Academy