Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr

ABOUT

Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, University Distinguished Professor, officially retired as Professor of Clarinet in 2007 after joining the MSU faculty in 1962, but she remained active in the College for many years as a teacher and performer. A renowned clarinetist and teacher whose students occupy numerous major university, college and orchestral positions throughout the U.S. and abroad, she has performed, lectured, and given master classes in over 100 national and international clarinet congresses and for several years was a participant in the Marlboro Music Festivals and touring groups. She has appeared frequently in the United States and abroad as a recitalist, clinician, and soloist with orchestras, and was principal clarinetist of the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra for 24 summers. As a member of MSU’s Richards Wind Quintet she toured throughout the US and Canada, also appearing at the White House, and recorded for Musical Heritage and Crystal Records. As a member of the Verdehr Trio for 43 years, Professor Verdehr performed in every U.S. state and in nearly 60 countries around the world. She has appeared in many major concert halls, including the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, New York’s Tully, Weill and Merkin Halls, Vienna’s Brahms-Saal, Sydney Opera House, Prague’s Dvorak Hall and London’s Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, among others. Paramount among the activities of the Trio, with much assistance from MSU, was a commissioning project resulting in over 225 original works for the violin-clarinet-piano combination written for the Trio by American and international composers, including 8 Pulitzer Prize winning composers. Professor Verdehr is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music.