Erin Miesner

Biography

Erin Miesner is a Chicago based clarinetist and arranger. She received her Masters in Music from DePaul University in 2012, graduating with distinction. Originally from Missouri, Erin graduated with a Bachelor's in Music from Truman State University in 2010. Her primary teachers include Julie DeRoche, Larry Combs, and Dr. Jesse Krebs.

Erin is an active chamber musician and freelancer in the Chicago area and is a founding member of Lake Effect Clarinet Quartet. Lake Effect has presented at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest conference in 2019 and 2017, completed a residency at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in 2017, was selected as a quarter-finalist for the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and released their debut album, Nielsen, Grainger, & Strauss, in October 2019. They will release their sophomore album, Cooler by the Lake in January 2024. Erin won the International Clarinet Association Orchestral Excerpt Competition in 2017, and was selected as a finalist in both 2011 and 2014. She won the Truman State University Gold Medal Concerto Competition and performed William Bolcom’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra with the Truman State Symphony Orchestra in 2008. She was selected as an alternate in the Missouri Music Teachers National Association Competition in 2009. In addition, Erin was the recipient of a 2012 Farwell Trust award from the Musicians Club of Women. This award allowed her to give a recital in the Chicago Cultural Center's historic Preston Bradley Hall in downtown Chicago, as well as other venues throughout the city.

In addition to performing, Erin is an avid arranger of orchestral and chamber music for clarinet. Her catalog most extensively features works arranged for clarinet quartet, clarinet and piano, and bass clarinet and piano. Erin has 17 years of experience creating scores using Finale music notation software (currently using
v. 27) and has worked as an engraver/copyist for Cliff Colnot, Augusta Read Thomas, AWR Music, and more.

When not doing clarinet-ey things, Erin enjoys baking bread, reading, listening to podcasts, Skyping with family, and petting the adorable kitties that live in her apartment.