“ Alice’s clarinet playing is musically stylish, imaginative, and personal; superb! As a teacher, she is a real force, and prepares her students for college in a marvelous fashion.”
-Håkan Rosengren, Artist-in-residence and Professor of Clarinet, Cal State Fullerton
When Alice Gallagher made her solo debut with the Boston Pops in 1998 at the age of eighteen, she planned on playing in an orchestra for a career, and doing some teaching on the side. However, years and years later, she gradually realized that she really enjoyed teaching more than taking auditions and ever since then, she has been concentrating on mentoring and instructing clarinetists of all ages and levels, from beginner to those preparing for college and beyond.
Gallagher's students have gone on to study music at schools such as Eastman School of Music, Boston Conservatory, UCLA, and California State University-Fullerton. They have been accepted into prestigious programs such as the Interlochen Arts Camp, and placed in Massachusetts and California All-State Bands and Orchestras.
Alice Gallagher also has adult amateur students who are making a difference in their community; among them have numbered teachers, engineers, doctors, and a veterinarian. Their local musical accomplishments are all contributing to a more vibrant musical life for Northern San Diego County.
Background
A Massachusetts native, Gallagher began studying clarinet at Hawthorne Brook Middle School in rural Townsend, MA. For six years, she practiced without private lessons, relying on instruction from her first band director, Ken Arsenault. She set her eyes on a career in performance after she had been playing only two years. In high school, she studied with Worcester Academy clarinet instructor (and multiple Boston Marathoner) Bob D'Ambrosio before going on to be Boston Symphony Orchestra Associate Principal Clarinetist Thomas Martin's only high school student in the late 1990's, taking lessons everywhere from the basement of Boston's famed Symphony Hall to the sheds at Tanglewood. She also studied with Ian Greitzer, Michael Sussman, and Ernie Thomas. She is an aluma of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (now BYSO), and New England Conservatory's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. She played princpal clarinet in the Massachusetts All-State Orchestra and was also the North Middlesex Regional High School's Assistant Drum Major, attending the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy at UMASS-Amherst.
She started teaching clarinet the summer of her eighth grade year, at age 14, tutoring her fellow students for $5.00/half hour.
Her experience teaching thus spans over two decades.
She graduated from Juilliard and went on to study with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Principal Clarinetist Todd Levy for a year before returning to Boston and successfully auditioning for several festival ensembles, including the New World Symphony and National Orchestral Institute. She then attended California State University-Fullerton, studying with soloist Håkan Rosengren for three years, and graduated with a Master of Music in Clarinet Performance. She performed as guest soloist with serveral university ensembles during this time, including those of Concordia University-Irvine and Cal State Fullerton.
After receiving her Master of Music in Performance in 2011, she joined the Associate Faculty of MiraCosta College, and later the University of San Diego.