Ernest Fred Ormand

On Monday morning, July 1, 2024, Ernest Fred Ormand died at home after a brief illness. Known as Fred all his life, to avoid confusion with his father, Ernest, he was born in Dallas, Texas to parents Ernest Ormand and Ladye Ormand (Paris). His family lived in various small towns in Texas, with he and his mother spending the years during World War II in Mount Pleasant, Texas, with Ladye’s sister Grace, while his father served in the armed forces. After the war, the family settled in Plainview, Texas and put down roots. Here Fred began his musical studies on the clarinet, after trying out the trumpet and the French horn. He chose the clarinet because “You put your finger on a key and it played one note. That made sense to me.”

Fred began his clarinet studies with Robert C. Davidson, director of bands in Plainview, Texas. Davidson, affectionately known as “Chief”, had been a student of Joseph Schreurs, principal clarinetist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He had phenomenal success as a teacher, with a string of students who held the first chair position in the Texas All-State Band for several years in a row. When Fred came along, he was first chair clarinetist for three consecutive years, his entire high school career. After graduation from high school, Fred attended the University of Michigan School of Music, graduating with a degree in music education. The legendary William D. Revelli, Director of Bands at the University of Michigan, personally recruited Fred for Michigan. He studied with Alberto Luconi, who had played for Arturo Toscanini in Italy. Luconi was a devoted cigar smoker, and Fred remembered that if you had an afternoon clarinet lesson, you had to peer through clouds of smoke.

After completing his studies at Michigan, Fred went on to Michigan State University, to pursue a Master of Music in Woodwinds degree under Keith Stein. The decision to go to MSU was a last minute one, coming after he had failed the physical for West Point. It proved to be both a pivotal and fortuitous decision for Fred, as Stein became one of his most important teachers and mentors.

Fred’s first job after receiving his MM was at Amarillo College in Texas, where he settled with his new bride, Anne (Dowling). At Amarillo, he did a little bit of everything, teaching clarinet and other woodwind instruments, as well as conducting wind ensembles. As Fred tells it, “I even strapped a saxophone around my neck and fronted the jazz band.” While at Amarillo, Anne and Fred’s first son Keith was born in 1961. After three years in Texas, he left for Michigan to become a charter faculty member of the newly organized Interlochen Arts Academy (IAA).

It was at Interlochen that Fred established his reputation as a teacher, with successful students like David Shifrin, internationally acclaimed clarinetist and professor at Yale, and Lee Morgan, principal clarinetist of the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen, and professor at the Conservatory. He was a member of the Interlochen Woodwind Quintet, which concertized frequently, and founded the Dusha Quartet, which toured extensively, including a performance at Carnegie Hall.

In the midst of all this exciting professional activity, second child Kirk was born in 1962.

In the fall of 1963 Fred took a leave of absence from IAA to spend a year in London as a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal College of Music in London. While there he studied clarinet with Bernard Walton, principal clarinetist of the Philharmonia Orchestra and chamber music with Cecil Aronowitz. At that time Walton was one of the most admired clarinetists in Europe, with an enormous following amongst both conductors and players. He had a profound impact on Fred’s concept of sound, legato, and technical facility. Another important and lasting influence on Fred was his Alexander Technique lessons with Walter Carrington and Joan Murray. The combination of Walton’s teaching and Fred’s work on the Alexander Technique was lasting benefit to his own teaching going forward.

Final formal clarinet studies were with Robert Marcellus, principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra. It was this relationship that paved the way for Fred’s next important professional experience. Fred had returned to IAA for several years following his Fulbright studies, during which time Anne and Fred welcomed daughter Carol to the family. Then Chicago called. Fred was invited to serve as an interim professor of clarinet at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, when Robert Marcellus had to retire from the faculty due to health reasons. In addition to the advantages of teaching at a noted school of music, he had the opportunity to play with the Chicago Symphony for a season, under such noted conductors as Fritz Reiner, Claudio Abbado, Carlo Maria Giulini (his favorite) and Christoph von Dohnányi, who memorably put Fred through the ringer in a private playing session in his office. Fred emerged triumphant. He later went on to play with the Detroit, Cleveland and Hong Kong symphonies. His summers were spent playing at the Grand Teton Music Festival, and teaching and playing chamber music at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.

Fred’s academic career following the year at Northwestern was peripatetic; a year at SUNY Fredonia, seven years at Michigan State University, and two years at Florida State University. In 1984, he joined the faculty the University of Michigan, where he built one of the finest clarinet programs in the country and attracted students from all over the world. He taught at Michigan for 23 years, retiring in 2007. His time at Michigan was marked by important performances, recordings, and the success of noted students. In addition to teaching and performing, Fred served as president of the International Clarinet Association from 1990 to 1992. A major research project was the preparation of editions of the clarinet music of Amilcare Ponchielli. Recordings of these editions are available from Danacord Records, and have received many performances by leading clarinetists. In the spring of 2001, in recognition of his important research on the music of Ponchielli, he was invited by the city of Cremona, Italy, to present a lecture at the symposium honoring the composer, which he did, speaking in Italian! His book “The Single Reed Adjustment Manual” is now used in leading universities and conservatories. In retirement, he published a second book, “Fundamentals for Fine Clarinet Playing”.

Fred met his wife Julia Broxholm in 1995. They married in the fall of 1996 and shared almost 28 very happy years together, enjoying cooking, travelling, performing, and recording together.

As an educator, Fred was much appreciated for his dedication to his students. He was never too busy to write a persuasive letter, make a phone call, or otherwise help to further the dreams and aspirations of his students. His former students have won positions in the Boston Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Royal Danish Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony, the Honolulu Symphony, the Naples Philharmonic, the Las Vegas Philharmonic, the Sarasota Opera Orchestra, the U. S. Army Field Band, the U.S. Army Band, and the United States Marine Band. Major universities have sought his students as teachers for their woodwind programs. Among teachers of particular note are David Shifrin at Yale, Richard Hawkins at Oberlin Conservatory, and Michael Wayne at Eastman School of Music.

Fred’s career as an educator was marked by many honors and awards. He received the Harold Haugh Award for his outstanding work as a teacher of applied music. In 2002 he was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award of the School of Music and in 2007, in recognition of his service, he was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by the University of Michigan Band Alumni Association, an award presented only twice before. In 1989 he was visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory, where he attracted students from across China. In 1995 he gave an acclaimed series of master classes in England, Denmark, and Sweden. As a performer, he was admired for his many chamber music and solo recital performances at the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, Chamber Music Northwest, and at many other festivals and universities in the United States and Europe. Among his recordings are two CD’s with famed collaborative pianist Martin Katz and soprano Julia Broxholm, Of Shepherds, Romance, and Love, 19th Century Songs for Soprano, Clarinet and Piano, and Transience, featuring 20th century works by Dominick Argento and Ned Rorem, for clarinet, soprano, and piano. Other recordings include Il Convegno: Premiere Recording of Solo Works for Winds by Amilcare Ponchielli, and Hindemith: Sonatas for Woodwinds. Fred recorded for Equilibrium, Crystal, and Danacord Records.

In retirement, Fred followed his wife Julia to Lawrence Kansas, where she had a faculty position as professor of voice at the University of Kansas School of Music. Upon her retirement in 2021, they returned to Ann Arbor, Michigan in order to be closer to family and friends. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Anne. He is survived by his wife, Julia, children Keith, Kirk (Gayle Boyer), and Carol (John Bohlman), stepson Alan Collins (Cassie Walls), and grandchildren Kevin Boyer, Ella Boyer, Oliver Collins, Evelyn Collins, and Eloise Collins.

Fred and Julia established the Fred Ormand Endowed Scholarship Fund in his honor at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. Contributions to this scholarship fund may be made at the following link: https://giving.umich.edu/um/w/fred-ormand-endowed-scholarship-fund-702243?keyword=Ormand.

And lastly, no tribute to Fred would be complete without a mention of his dedication to the game of golf. He played occasionally with his father when young, but it was really as an adult that his passion for the game was fully embraced. He approached mastery of the game with the same dedication and discipline that he brought to his playing and teaching of the clarinet. One of the last special times he and Julia enjoyed together was watching the re-broadcast of a documentary about the 1977 Open at Turnberry in Great Britain. Fred enjoyed every minute of that exciting golf tournament. He will be sorely missed by family and friends alike, as much for his passionate devotion to golf as for his gleaming clarinet tone, his remarkable intonation and impeccable rhythmic sense, and most important, his devotion to the people he loved, and to the many students whom he taught and mentored for over fifty years.