The multi-award-winning clarinetist Alexander Bedenko is one of the most prolific artists of his generation and has performed with major conductors of leading orchestras, ensembles and festivals in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Born in Ukraine, into a family of musicians, Alexander Bedenko graduated from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied clarinet with Donald Montanaro and chamber music with Pamela Frank, Peter Wiley and Joseph Silverstein.
Alexander Bedenko has won first prizes at the || Moscow International Young Artist’s Competition in 1994, the Interlochen Center for the Arts “Concerto Competition” (1995-1996), the Grand-Prix and Laureate at the International Selmer Clarinet Competition in Kiev, (1999) and was a recipient scholarship of the « New Names » Charity Foundation, Vladimir Spivakov’s Foundation and the named scholarship of The President of Ukraine, from (1997-1999).
In the past seasons, Alexander Bedenko has appeared in such recital venues as the Carnegie’s Weill recital Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Steinway Hall in New York City, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, the Great Hall at Moscow Conservatory and UNESCO in Paris. He has collaborated with world-renowned artists such as Vladimir Spivakov, Christoph Eschenbach, Nikolai Lugansky, Elena Bashkirova, Kirill Gernstein, Itamar Golan, Daniel Hope, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Frans Helmerson, Nobuko Imai, Eugenia Zukerman, Maxim Rysanov, Gautier Capucon and worked with the Borodin, Jerusalem, Ying, Alma, Endellion and Orion string quartets.
Alexander Bedenko has also performed as a soloist with Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, Romanian National Radio Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Ukraine, the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and appearanced at the Colmar, Verbier, Spoleto, Sarasota, Miami and Schubertiade music festivals.
Mr. Bedenko has also been broadcast on television in France, Sweden, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and has been featured on RAI Radio Classica, on WQXR Radio (New York), WRTI Radio (Philadelphia), and the “Voice of America” in Washington D.C.
In 2007, Alexander Bedenko appeared together with Richard Stoltzman on a recording of the music of J.S. Bach for the RCA/BMG Japan label.
As an orchestra musician, Mr. Bedenko was invited by Riccardo Muti to perform as principal clarinet on a highly acclaimed European tour with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (in 2014) and has also performed as guest principal clarinet with the London Symphony Orchestra, both at the Barbican Centre and on tour in Germany under the baton of Daniel Harding, with the Philharmonia Orchestra (London) and with the Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of Franz Welser Most.
From (2008 – 2018) Alexander Bedenko has served as a co-principal clarinetist with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, directed by Gabor Takacs-Nagy.
Alexander Bedenko plays on Selmer Signature clarinets and became Selmer Paris Artist in 2015, as well as D’Addario woodwinds Artist in 2019.