I’ve just purchased the very first Morales-Backun clarinet, serial number MB100, in cocobolo with gold keys. This is one of the many rich benefits of my 25 year friendship with the amazing Morrie Backun and his family. First performance will be this weekend at the Eugene Rousseau master class where Debbie Webb, Roy Sluyter and I are performing Max Bruch’s Three Pieces for clarinet, alto saxophone and piano.

As wonderful as the instrument sounded in the shop, it is even more amazing in my studio where I know the soundspace. Although though it is brand new to me, it is making the Bruch easier technically because of the rock solid keywork. It is wild that the horn is both firmer and sweeter in tone and also more centred and responsive. It is hard to say what I like best, but the entries from nowhere and diminuendos al niente are just sublime.