RIP Lorin Levee, LA Phil Principal Clarinet
February 23, 2012 Leave a Comment
According to KUSC’s Twitter feed, Lorin Levee, Principal Clarinet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has passed away. He was 61 years old. The information was retweeted by the LA Phil, so I’m guessing that the sad news is accurate. Thoughts, prayers, and condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.
No additional details, and the orchestra has not yet issued an official media release. As soon as they do, I’ll pass them along.
UPDATE (12:58PM PST): This from the LA Phil’s Facebook page . . .
It is with great sadness that we pass on the news that our Principal Clarinet, Lorin Levee passed away yesterday. He fought a long and courageous battle with a fatal blood disorder; a battle so valiant that he played his final concert with us only on January 8. Lorin joined the orchestra in 1976 as our bass clarinetist and in 1981 won the position as Principal. He was a great clarinetist, a dedicated member of our New Music group, and had appeared with the orchestra as a soloist on numerous occasions. This is a real loss for us all.
UPDATE (4:04PM PST): details from the Los Angeles Times of music to be played tonight in his honor:
A concert on Thursday at Walt Disney Concert Hall will be dedicated to Levee. The orchestra has added an extra piece to the program — Ravel’s “Le Jardin Féerique” (The Enchanted Garden) — in honor of the musician. In addition, Deborah Borda, president of the L.A. Philharmonic, is scheduled to speak.
Mr. Levee joined the orchestra in 1976 as bass clarinetist. He was promoted to principal in 1981 by Carlo Maria Giulini.
He has been prominently featured on many of the orchestras recordings, including the Rachmaninoff 2nd Symphony conducted by Simon Rattle and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. More recently, he could be seen on video in Gustavo Dudamel’s 2009 inaugural concert as Music Director, most especially during that concert’s performance of the Mahler 1st Symphony.
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Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Mrs. CKDH had asked for some Pinot Noir to go with the Mardi Gras meal she was preparing, so I poked around the wine “cellar” (read as “dedicated closet for wine in our garage”) to see what I could find. I was surprised to find a bottle of 2005 
I’m headed back to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion tonight to tweet-up 
In about two-and-a-half hours, I’ll be sitting in the Loge section of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion watching the final Los Angeles Opera dress rehearsal of Simon Boccanegra, sharing my thoughts in real time with the world, 140 characters at a time.
Clearly, Mahler was a guy who liked to think and compose about death. Musical allusions to it show up in all of his works being performed as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Mahler Project” (some may quibble about Songs of the Wayfarer, but if you’re singing about putting a red-hot knife in your breast, I think it counts). Death manifests itself differently in each of his symphonies, with the Ninth typically being referred to as Mahler’s farewell to life, especially in the work’s final movement. Whether the musical adieu is intended to be a melancholy one or not is a matter of interpretation.
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