NATCHITOCHES – Guest artist Austin McFarland will present a clarinet recital at Northwestern State University on Thursday, March 9 at 6 p.m. in the Varnado Hall Ballroom. Admission is free and open to the public.
McFarland is a teaching artist, entrepreneur and performer in the central United States. As a woodwind specialist. McFarland performs regularly on all five woodwinds (flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon) through the Midwest. He is one of the interim band directors at Mary Frances George Junior High School in Springdale, Arkansas.
McFarland holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, and a master’s degree and advanced performers certificate in woodwind performance from the University of Arkansas. He is the orchestra conductor and adjunct music professor at Northwest Arkansas Community College and maintains an active private studio in northwest Arkansas. Prior to moving to Arkansas, McFarland taught K-12 general music, band, and choir in Macksville, Kansas, and kept an active studio in south central Kansas.
His career as a performer ranges from the concert hall to the railroad car performing regularly in several pit orchestras, concert bands and orchestras in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri. Since 2016 McFarland has performed the National Anthem for the final game of the National Junior College D1 Men’s Basketball Championship. Hè has performed in masterclasses for Jeff Loeffert, Stephen Page, Suzanne Tirk, Julia Heinen, and Steve Ticknor. McFarland is a founding member of Cynical Duo, a single reed duo dedicated to increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in the single reed repertoire.
McFarland is marketing administrator for the North American Saxophone Alliance. He recently joined the board of New Works Project, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to lower the financial barriers and increase representation to promote equity in commissioning and performing new music. McFarland was a 2019 semifinalist in the International Clarinet Associations Research Competition.
All the elements of Austin’s music career have allowed him to perform, present, and participate in events in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, and China.
