Randall Cunningham

Randall Cunningham
Teacher/Performer of Clarinet and Saxophone

Randall Cunningham was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He received his first professional musical training as a clarinetist in the United States Air Force Band program serving from 1962-66 and was stationed in Dayton, Ohio, Phoenix, Arizona and in Tokyo, Japan.

In 1967 he became a student at Indiana University’s renowned School of Music where he studied clarinet with Earl Bates and Henry Gulick. There he earned the BM (1971), MM (1973) and DM (1984) degrees with a major in clarinet performance and minors in music history and music theory. While at Indiana, he was awarded a Teaching Assistantship (1971-73), an IU Fellowship (1978-79) and in 1981 was the winner of the annual woodwind competition which resulted in a performance of the Weber Clarinet Concerto No.1 with the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra.

As a teacher, Dr. Cunningham has served on the music faculties of the University of South Florida (1974) and Central Missouri State University (1984). Since 1985, he has been the Instructor of Clarinet and Saxophone at William Jewell College in Liberty, MO. He also teaches privately at Antioch Music in Gladstone, MO and out of his home in Liberty.

As a performer, Dr. Cunningham has played professionally with many fine ensembles including the Detroit Concert Band, the Owensboro Symphony, the Evansville Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony, the Orquesta de Xalapa (Mexico), the Santa Fe Opera and the Des Moines Metro Opera. Since 1986, Dr. Cunningham has been the Principal Clarinetist of both the Liberty Symphony and St. Joseph Symphony in Missouri. He has also performed with the Kansas City Symphony and the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. As a clarinet soloist, he has performed the Weber Concerto No.1 with the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra, the Mozart and Copland Concertos with the St. Joseph Symphony and the Mozart Concerto with the Liberty Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to his teaching and performing, Dr. Cunningham also composes and arranges works for clarinet. He currently has five books of etudes, two solos for clarinet and piano and an arrangement of the Weber Concertino for solo clarinet (with clarinet quartet or clarinet choir accompaniment) which have been published by Woodwindiana of Bloomington, Indiana. Two of his arrangements have been recorded on CD by the Harmonie Winds of Kansas City. To see all of his published compositions, go to www.woodwindiana.com

Dr. Cunningham is a member of the American Federation of Musicians, the International Clarinet Society and former Secretary/Treasurer and Newsletter Editor of the Midwest Clarinet Society of Kansas City. He also founded the Rondo Woodwind Quintet, a professional chamber ensemble, which for fifteen years performed as many as forty concerts annually throughout schools in the greater Kansas City area under the auspices of Young Audiences of Kansas City.