Sharon Kam

Clarinet soloist Sharon Kam has been working with renowned orchestras in the United States, Europe and Japan for over 20 years.

Mozart’s clarinet masterpieces have been an object of artistic focus for Kam since the beginning of her career. At the age of 16, she performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in her orchestral debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Zubin Mehta. A short time later, she performed the Clarinet Quintet with the Guarneri String Quartet in Carnegie Hall, New York. As part of Mozart’s 250th birthday celebrations at the National Theatre in Prague, her interpretation of the Mozart concerto was televised live in 33 countries and is available on DVD. In the same year, she was able to realize her long-time dream of recording the Concerto and the Clarinet Quintet using the basset clarinet.

As a passionate chamber musician, Kam regularly works with artists such as Christian Tetzlaff, Enrico Pace, Daniel Müller-Schott, Leif Ove Andsnes, Carolin Widmann and the Jerusalem Quartet. She is a frequent guest at festivals in Schleswig-Holstein, Heimbach, Rheingau, Risør, Cork, Verbier and Delft, as well as the Schubertiade festival. An active performer of contemporary music, she has premiered many works, including Krzysztof Penderecki’s Concerto and Quartet and concertos by Herbert Willi (at the Salzburg Festival), Iván Erőd and Peter Ruzicka (at Donaueschingen).

In the 2024/25 season, Kam will be the artist-in-residence at the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and is looking forward to concerts with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alexandre Bloch and Gregor Bühl, a play-lead performance with the Württembergisches Kammerorchester, as well as chamber concerts with her long-time partners Liza Ferschtman, Enrico Pace and Christian Poltéra, along with the Jerusalem Quartet. Kam feels at home in a variety of musical genres – from classical to modern music and jazz – which is reflected in her diverse discography. She received the ECHO “Instrumentalist of the Year” award two times. Her “American Classics” CD with the London Symphony Orchestra was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

In 2021 her recordings of Hindemith’s Clarinet Concerto with the hr-Sinfonieorchester conducted by Daniel Cohen and Hindemith’s Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano with Antje Weithaas, Julian Steckel and Enrico Pace were released.

Since 2022 Kam has been working as a Professor of Clarinet at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.