Not to be confused with German clarinetist Sabine Grofmeier.
Sabine Meyer
Birth dateMarch 30, 1959 (age 67)
Birth placeCrailsheim, Germany
Occupation
  • Classical clarinetist
  • Academic teacher
Years active1983–2025
Organizations
Websitewww.sabine-meyer.com
Awards
SpouseReiner Wehle

Sabine Meyer (born 30 March 1959)[1] is a German classical clarinetist. She ended her career with a final chamber music performance on 15 December 2025 in Bern.

Biography

Born in Crailsheim, Baden-Württemberg, Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist. She studied with Otto Hermann in Stuttgart and then with Hans Deinzer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover, along with her brother, clarinetist Wolfgang Meyer, and husband, clarinetist Reiner Wehle, who played later in the Munich Philharmonic.[2] She began her career as a member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic, where her appointment as one of the orchestra's first female members caused controversy.[3] Herbert von Karajan, the orchestra's music director, hired Meyer in September 1982, but the players voted against her at the conclusion of her probation period by a vote of 73 to 4.[4] The orchestra insisted the reason was that her tone did not blend with the other members of the section, but some observers, including Karajan, believed that the true reason was her gender. In 1983, after nine months, Meyer left the orchestra to become a full-time solo clarinetist.[5]

In addition to her work as a soloist, and a band member in general, Sabine Meyer is a committed player of chamber music and plays all styles of classical music. She was a member of the Trio di Clarone along with her brother and her husband who have recorded many CDs.[6][7] Meyer and her wind quintet have worked as members of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra with Claudio Abbado.[8]

As a soloist, Meyer has appeared with more than 300 orchestras internationally, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, and the radio symphony orchestras of Vienna, Basel, Warsaw, Prague and Budapest.[9] Her collaborators included conductors Claudio Abbado, Herbert Blomstedt, Hans Vonk, Kenneth Sillito, Franz Welser-Möst, Nicolò Foron and Nayden Todorov among others.[10][11][12]

By the 1990s, Meyer had become a prominent solo clarinetist, recording regularly and exclusively for the EMI label.[13] These EMI recordings include a CD of French music for Clarinet and Piano with Oleg Maisenberg, entitled French Recital. A disc of clarinet concertos by Ludwig Spohr and Franz Krommer was released in July 2007, for which she collaborated with her student Julian Bliss.

From 1993 to the winter semester 2019/2020 she shared with her husband a professorship at Musikhochschule Lübeck, in Schleswig-Holstein.[2] Her husband's successor is his former student Jens Thoben. She was professor until October 2022.

Her clarinet students have also included Shirley Brill, Annelien Van Wauwe, Sebastian Manz, Taira Kaneko and Han Kim.

Instruments

Sabine Meyer plays the clarinet and basset clarinet in B and A, as well as a basset horn in F, all made of grenadilla by Herbert Wurlitzer, and clarinets in B and in A made of boxwood, manufactured by Schwenk & Seggelke (now: Seggelke Klarinetten), which she mainly uses in chamber music. In 1984, Meyer commissioned Wurlitzer to build a basset clarinet (in A) for her, not a historical replica but a modern, hitherto only occasionally, built instrument. Since then, she has been playing the clarinet concerto by Mozart (and his clarinet quintet) in a reconstructed version.

Retirement

Meyer chose to retire from the concert stage at the age of 66, citing the physical demands of playing the clarinet at the highest level as well as her wish to step back from the pressures of an intensive concert schedule after many decades.[14] Her farewell concerts focused primarily on chamber music. On 4 December 2025, she performed in Berlin with the Armida Quartet in Brahms's Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115. Her final public concert took place on 15 December 2025 in Bern, featuring a Christmas programme performed together with the Alliage Saxophone Quintet.[15]

Awards

Selected recordings

References

  1. ^ Kunz, Roland (28 March 2019). "Die Klarinettistin Sabine Meyer wird 60" (in German). Stuttgart: Südwestrundfunk. Archived from the original on 9 December 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  2. ^ Hannemann, Matthias (29 May 2007). "Solo für Klarinette" (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  3. ^ "Karajan and orchestra clash over clarinetist". The New York Times. United Press International. 8 January 1983. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  4. ^ "Schlag ins Konto" (in German). Der Spiegel. 10 January 1983. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  5. ^ Schwarz, Elisabeth (28 May 2018). ""Daneben verblasst erstmal alles": Sabine Meyer über Mozarts Bassettklarinettenkonzert". Bachtrack. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  6. ^ Zimmerlin, Alfred (4 October 2013). "Avantgarde der Romantik" (in German). Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  7. ^ Obiera, Pedro (7 March 2017). "Kammermusik voller Poesie und Leidenschaft" (in German). Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  8. ^ Service, Tom (22 August 2007). "The maestro". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
  9. ^ "Sabine Meyer". Salzburg Festival. Retrieved 30 May 2026.
  10. ^ "Clarinettist Sabine Meyer". ABC listen. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 1 December 2025. Retrieved 30 May 2026.
  11. ^ Zabov, Nikolay (22 April 2022). "Acclaimed Clarinettist, Conductor to Perform with Sofia Philharmonic". Bulgarian News Agency. Retrieved 30 May 2026.
  12. ^ "Bomsori Kim & Sabine Meyer". Discover Sofia. Retrieved 30 May 2026.
  13. ^ Andrew Clements (2007-09-06). "Nielsen: Flute Concerto; Clarinet Concerto; Wind Quintet, Pahud/ Meyer/ Berlin Philharmoniker/ Rattle". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  14. ^ Haustein, Clemens (12 December 2025). "Sabine Meyer, Der perfekte Abschied" (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
  15. ^ "Abschied einer Legende: Das letzte Konzert von Sabine Meyer" (in German). Die Rheinpfalz. 14 December 2025.
  16. ^ "Niedersächsischer Staatspreis" (in German). Portal Niedersachsen. 15 September 2021. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  17. ^ "Sabine Meyer" (in German). Salzburger Festspiele. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  18. ^ "Past winners". Website of the Brahms Society Schleswig-Holstein. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  19. ^ "Kunst aus dem Norden für den Norden" (in German). Landesportal Schleswig-Holstein. 18 June 2021. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  20. ^ Reservix, Sabine Meyer
  21. ^ Staatsministerium Baden-Württemberg. "Verdienstorden des Landes Baden-Württemberg Liste der Ordensträger 1975 – 2018". stm.baden-wuerttemberg.de. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  22. ^ Communication from the Office of the President of Germany, Retrieved 4 October 2013
  23. ^ "Sabine Meyer". Rudolf-Oetker-Halle