b. 1935, d. --
clarinetist; teacher, Paris Conservatoire
Guy Dangain was born in northern France to a community thriving with clarinetists. It was only a matter of time until he aligned himself with the local music society and procured a clarinet of his own. His parents, having no musical background themselves, still managed to support him throughout his studies; and he later took his first lessons from François Dreulle.
In 1951 he studied at the National Conservatoire in Lille, where his teacher was Edmond Hannart. Quickly surpassing his teacher’s skill, Dangain won a First Prize in performance during the year he was there, and the following year enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire. Once again, within a year he had claimed yet another First Prize, a feat which had not been achieved in quite some time for a first year student. The last clarinetist to do so was Delecluse in 1925, who also being a former student of François Dreulle, was now teaching Dangain. Following that year, he studied for a bit with Cahuzac and Henri Dionet; and in 1955, Dangain won another First Prize for chamber music at the Conservatoire. Later, he spent a year as a soloist in the Musique des Equipages de la Flotte, and in 1963, after playing second to Gilbert Voisin in the orchestra for Radio Lille, he succeeded at becoming the principal in the Orchestra National de France.
Dangain has performed all over the world as a soloist, and played chamber music with such esteemed musicians as Isaac Stern and Wolfgang Sawallish. He has written a fairly large body of clarinet literature and studies, and has held teaching positions at the national conservatories of Limoges and Valenciennes, as well as the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. In 1975 he began teaching at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, which is part of the 38 national schools in France that are connected to the conservatoires in Paris and Lyons.
He currently (as of 2003) has 16 woodwind students at the Paris Conservatoire in his class known as Préparation à l’Orchestre, and is also employed by Henri Selmer at the clarinet factory in Mantes.
[↵] clarinetist