Winner of both the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1987) and the Avery Fisher Prize (2000) David Shifrin is in constant demand as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He has appeared with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad, and has served as principal clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra (under Leopold Stokowski), Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and others. As a recitalist, Shifrin has performed throughout the world including at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress. Notable concerto performances include Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Denver Symphony Orchestra, as well as orchestras in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy.

 A sought-after chamber musician, he collaborates frequently with distinguished ensembles and artists. Shifrin has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1982 and served as its artistic director from 1992 to 2004. He served as artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR from 1981 to 2000, and currently serves as artistic director of the Phoenix Chamber Music Festival.

At Yale, Shifrin teaches a studio of graduate-level clarinetists and coaches chamber music ensembles. He is also the Artistic Director of Yale’s Oneppo Chamber Music Series and the Yale in New York concert series. Previously, Shifrin served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, University of Southern California, University of Michigan, Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Hawaii.

Mr. Shifrin’s recordings for Delos, DGG, Angel/EMI, Arabesque, BMG, SONY, CRI, Musica Solis have consistently garnered praise and awards. He has received three Grammy nominations — for a collaborative recording with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center of the collected chamber music of Claude Debussy (Delos), the Copland Clarinet Concerto (Angel/EMI) and Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro with Nancy Allen, Ransom Wilson, and the Tokyo String Quartet (Angel/EMI). His recording of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, performed in its original version on a specially built basset clarinet, was named Record of the Year by Stereo Review. David Shifrin can be heard on two albums with the late composer Lalo Schifrin: Shifrin Plays Schifrin and Letters from Argentina (nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2007). In 2023, David Shifrin’s recording of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra with Chamber Music Northwest (Delos) was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” His most recent release is on the Music Solis Label is the critically acclaimed Perpetual Motion, music of Francis Poulenc.

Shifrin performs on clarinets made by Morrie Backun in Vancouver, CA and Légère premium synthetic reeds made in Ontario, CA