The Inside Story: Eric Schultz and POLYGLOT

Eric Schultz’s masterful clarinet playing speaks in new and known tongues on POLYGLOT, a concept album celebrating music as a language of cultural identity and the self. To Schultz, a quarterfinalist for the 2025 GRAMMY® Music Educator of the Year, music is a hallmark of metamorphosis that drives cultural change across history, the performer and composer working in tandem to create something inspired and new.

Today, Eric is our featured artist in the “Inside Story,” a blog series exploring the inner workings and personalities of our composers and performers. Read on for insight into each piece on his Navona Records release, and his thoughts on the importance of carving your own path…

If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?

This is an exciting question to answer because this happened recently. I had the privilege of performing John Corigliano’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra with The Chelsea Symphony in New York City. Many clarinetists call this concerto the most difficult ever written, and it demands an enormous surround-sound ensemble, so it is a rare opportunity to perform this masterpiece with full orchestra.

Corigliano is one of the most celebrated composers alive. As faculty at the Juilliard School, his many accolades include a Pulitzer Prize, a Grawemeyer Award, five GRAMMY® Awards, and an Academy Award. He is best known for his Academy award-winning film score to The Red Violin and his GRAMMY® award-winning First Symphony. Honestly, John Corigliano is one of my musical idols, so to be invited into his home and mentored on his incredible Clarinet Concerto (his first commission from the New York Philharmonic) was really a privilege beyond my wildest dreams. He attended our rehearsals and called the performance “a sensation” (BroadwayWorld) while critic Jeffrey Williams described the performance as “an adrenaline rush, bursting with drama and relentless momentum” (Review at NYCReview).

Now, a real dream would be to commission a new work from him…!

What emotions do you hope listeners will experience after hearing your work?

 I cannot wait to hear what listeners take away from the album. The title, POLYGLOT, comes from my experience commissioning and premiering new music by composers writing in wildly different styles. Every time I approach a new piece of music, it’s like learning a new language, and that’s what I love about it — especially music that has never been performed before. It’s really a thrilling experience to bring that to life, and I hope that excitement comes through across the album.

I cannot wait for you all to hear Iván Enrique Rodríguez’s brand new Sonata Santera. You will be blown away by the captivating colors, imaginative writing, and a few moments that push the clarinet beyond its conventional limitations. It was a joy to perform this one with my friend and pianist Han Chen, whose virtuosic performance creates a tremendous arch from the most sensitive moments all the way through to the unyielding, ritualistic drive of the final movement. I’ve been very fortunate to premiere many works by Rodríguez, but to premiere and record his clarinet sonata is a special honor. 

When you hear Johanny Navarro’s new work Danzón, you will immediately hear her undeniable spirit and the sincere love she has for the clarinet. Of course, we bonded over this. This is what I love most about Navarro — she sees possibilities in the clarinet that others may miss. Of course, the clarinet has a pristine tonal clarity, but it can really wail too!

Chia-Yu Hsu creates some of the most vivid imagery on the album in her work Summer Night in a Deep Valley for solo clarinet. Inspired by the Chinese landscape paintings of Guo Xi (c. 1020 – c. 1090), Hsu transports us through the environment in a kind of cinematic sweep, imagining what it might sound like across a deep valley on a summer night, insects and all.

Gabriel Bouche Caro shares an active introspection on the topic of identity in his work, Escenas. After a face-melting opening, the music calms and he weaves delicate multiphonics from the clarinet into the sound of the cello. You almost can’t tell which instrument is which anymore. It’s one of the most coloristic moments on the album. We had so much fun recording this one!

Finally, I knew that we would record the Brahms Trio, Op. 114 going into this project with my wonderful colleagues and friends, Han Chen and Clare Monfredo. It served as our starting point. As part of the spirit of the album, this work represents a considerable part of the language of the instrument, and for many, Brahms represents the pinnacle of the repertoire. Before writing the trio, Brahms was considering retirement from composition. However, he was so fascinated by the playing of his friend, clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, he continued to compose and wrote many works for the relatively young instrument. Moving forward, this piece serves as my model for a new repertoire for the instrument, where composers and performers inspire each other to create. 

What’s the greatest performance you’ve ever seen, and what made it special?

As a young aspiring clarinetist, I saw Alex Fiterstein perform Carl Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. At the time, I had no idea the clarinet was capable of this level of technique and expressivity. I’ve seen so many incredible performances, but I think this one stands out for me because it was the first time I saw the full power of the clarinet in front of an orchestra.

What musical mentor had the greatest impact on your artistic journey? Is there any wisdom they’ve imparted onto you that still resonates today?

Everything I am doing today, from teaching, performing, and beyond, revolves around my commitment to supporting living composers. Every year, I bring a prolific living composer to Coastal Carolina University, where I teach, for a weeklong residency. Our first guest was Valerie Coleman, the historic first Black woman ever commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and many more. Despite these historic accolades, Coleman is one of the humblest people I have ever met in my life. She was the perfect first guest artist to come to our campus and contribute to our conversation about representation in repertoire.

Coleman helped me shape this project and has had such an impact on my teaching and performing, fueling my creativity ever since. She taught me that you can create your own path, and it’s such a powerful lesson from her because she has demonstrated it time and again as a composer, performer, and teaching artist herself. She taught me that there is always time to help lift up those around you. She also showed me that even when you are on top of the field as she is, you can still be a generous, curious, and compassionate human being.

Of course, the students learned so much from her, but I almost feel that the real masterclass was for me. I think what Coleman did for me was to confirm that I’m on the right path. She gave me permission to keep doing what I am doing. I hope I can pay that forward to my students as well. It’s a powerful thing. A candle loses nothing by lighting another.

What advice would you give to your younger self if given the chance?

Learn the old way, but create a new way. The performing arts are steeped in tradition, but the people making an impact are those who create their own path. Open your mind to where that path may take you. We have this ability as artists to create something from nothing, and that’s real magic.