Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks - BRSO
Christopher Corbett © BR\Astrid Ackermann

Christopher Patrick Corbett

Clarinet
1st Principal Clarinet

Born in Bühl, Baden, Christopher Corbett received his first clarinet lessons at the age of eight.

After gaining initial experience in various youth orchestras and chamber music ensembles, he studied with Wolfhard Pencz at the Mannheim University of Music from 1998 until his concert exam in 2007. During his study years he received a number of prizes and grants, including the Leonberg Music Prize, a scholarship from the Hans and Eugenia Jütting Foundation in Stendal and first prize from the Munich Concert Society.

After an internship with the SWR Symphony Orchestra in Baden-Baden and Freiburg, Christopher Corbett was first engaged as principal clarinetist in the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne as of 2000, and between 2002 and 2005 played in the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin. Since September of 2005, he has been the principal clarinetist in the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

He is also a regular guest with other leading orchestras such as the Berlin and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and the SWR and NDR Symphony Orchestras. He is a chamber music partner of Gil Shaham, Yefim Bronfman, Leonidas Kavakos and others.

Christopher Corbett has been teaching clarinet at the Mannheim University of Music since 2019. He also supports the academy members of the BRSO.

In 2014, he began studying the Ondes Martenot at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg. Christopher Corbett has already performed with this instrument at the Frankfurt am Main Opera and with the SWR Symphony Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival.