Barbara Heilmair, D.M.A.
Assistant Professor of Clarinet & Music History
Woodwind Area Coordinator

Clarinet Studies at Portland State

Office: 321 LH
Phone: 503-725-3199
Fax: 503-725-8215
Email: heilmair@pdx.edu

Clarinetist Barbara Heilmair Tanret has recently joined the PSU faculty as Assistant Professor of Clarinet/ Music History and Head of the Woodwind Area. She maintains an international career as performer, educator and scholar, and has previously taught at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), the California State University in Long Beach (CSULB) and the Shekinah Music Academy.

After her debut in Salzburg in 1995, Barbara Heilmair performed with symphonic orchestras such as The Bavarian State Theater in Munich, The Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, The Tyrol International Music Festival (IOE), The Santa Barbara Symphony, The Santa Barbara Choral Society, The Opera Pasadena, The Mozart Classical Orchestra, The New Valley Symphony, and The Brentwood-Westwood Symphony. As a dedicated chamber musician, she has played with various ensembles in Europe, the United States, China and Japan, and co-founded the clarinet-harp ensemble "Duo Allemand" in Los Angeles.

As a scholar, Dr.Heilmair specializes in working with original manuscripts, creating new editions, and the researching Romantic composer Robert Fuchs, whose Clarinet Quintet she rediscovered and premiered in the US. The "Clarinet & Saxophone" magazine covered some of her publications in fall 2004.

Barbara Heilmair holds Diplomas in Clarinet Performance and in Instrumental Pedagogy from the University of Music and Performing Arts "Mozarteum" in Salzburg, along with M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from UCLA. The artists who influenced her most through their teaching were Gary Gray (LA Chamber Orchestra), Rolf Weber (Bavarian State Theater), Michele Zukovsky (LA Philharmonic), and Karl-Heinz Steffens (Berlin Philharmonic). She also studied in master classes with Mitchell Lurie, Eddie Daniels, Ricardo Morales, Monica Kaenzig, Alois Brandhofer, Eduard Brunner, François Benda and Milan Turkovich.

A native of Germany, Dr.Heilmair is familiar with both the French and the German clarinet systems. She is fluent in English, German and French. Several prizes and scholarships, such as the UCLA Fund for Excellence Stipend, the UCLA Regent’s Stipend, and awards from publisher C.F. Peters/ Frankfurt and composer Harald Genzmer, have supported her studies and work.