Music Department Welcomes Guest Clarinetist Wesley Ferreira

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Wesley Ferreira

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Acclaimed clarinetist Wesley Ferreira will perform a guest concert on Wednesday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center’s Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall. Ferreira has performed worldwide as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician and as a clinician and conductor. He is known for his performances of masterworks along with contemporary pieces, and often shows his support of new music by commissioning and premiering works.

He has been a featured soloist with numerous wind bands and orchestras in North America and Europe and has performed at the International Clarinet Association’s annual ClarinetFest, the Canadian University Music Society and the International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in Xi’an, China.

Ferreira has held conducting positions with numerous ensembles and has ongoing engagements at Southampton Summer Music and with the Portuguese Heritage Band Project, with which he has released two recordings in a series entitled Across the Ocean: The Music of Bandas Filarmonicas, featuring original works performed by musicians from various bandas in Ontario.

Born in Ontario to parents of Portuguese heritage, Ferreira has been an assistant professor of clarinet at Colorado State University since 2011 and was previously the single-reeds instructor and director of bands at Mount Allison University. He has also served as vice president of the New Brunswick Band Association and is the current president of the Canadian Association of Bandas Filarmonicas.

He graduated from the University of Western Ontario and Arizona State University where he studied under clarinetists Robert Riseling and Robert Spring, respectively.

The concert, presented by the department of music in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Stadium Drive Parking Facility, where parking is free after 5 p.m. Entrance to the parking facility is on Stadium Drive, and the facility’s elevator will take patrons to street level directly across from the Fine Arts Center.