(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., and ANNANDALE-on-HUDSON, N.Y.) – Aston Magna Music Festival presents Late, Great Mozart, showcasing historical clarinet master Eric Hoeprich, at Bard College on Friday, June 23 at 8pm, and at Saint James Place in Great Barrington on Saturday, June 24 at 6pm. The concert includes Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, K. 563 and K. 581.

Pre-concert talks take place an hour before the program with Aston Magna Artistic Director Daniel Stepner. The Saint James Place concert is followed by a wine and cheese reception with the artists.

For the past 25, years Eric Hoeprich has specialized in performing on historical clarinets in music from the Baroque to the late Romantic. In addition to IU, he also is currently on the faculties of the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique and the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. A founding member of Frans Brüggen’s Orchestra of the 18th Century (1982), Hoeprich has performed frequently as a soloist with this orchestra and many of the major early music ensembles, under conductors such as Roger Norrington, Christopher Hogwood, Bruno Weil, Philippe Herreweghe, Nicholas McGegan, and Jos van Immerseel. He has also performed with orchestras including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Akamus (Akademie für Alte Musik), Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Galicean Symphony Orchestra, B’Rock, and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra.

In the 1980s, he founded two wind ensembles, NACHTMUSIQUE and the Stadler Trio (three basset horns), which have toured around the world. He has made dozens of recordings, which are available on the Deutsche Grammaphon, Philips, EMI, SONY, Harmonia Mundi, Glossa, and Decca labels. Collaboration with string quartets, chamber ensembles, and vocal soloists also feature regularly on his calendar. The recent release of clarinet quintets (Mozart and Brahms) with the London Haydn Quartet (Glossa), and the three clarinet concertos by Bernhard Crusell with Kölner Akademie (ARS Production) have received wide critical acclaim.

Hoeprich’s interest in historical clarinets has led to the publication of numerous articles and a general text on the clarinet published by Yale University Press (The Clarinet, 2008). He has amassed a collection of over 100 antique clarinets, including instruments from the eighteenth century, which has also led to restoration and construction of replicas of period originals. He maintains a workshop for instrument making at his home near London.

The Aston Magna Music Festival concerts runs on Fridays at Bard through July 6, and on Saturdays in the Berkshires through July 22.