Alain Desgagné is Associate Principal Clarinet of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, a position he won in 2001, and Associate Professor at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.
He earned a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, then completed a Master’s degree and a Certificate at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied with Robert Marcellus.
Desgagné began his professional career in 1989 with the Victoria Symphony and became Principal Clarinet of the Winnipeg Symphony in 1996. He has appeared as a featured soloist with the Winnipeg Symphony and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and has served as Principal Clarinet of the National Orchestra of Italy (2005) and the New European Chamber Orchestra in Seattle.
A committed educator, he has been on the faculty of the Prisma Music Festival for over 20 years and of the Marrowstone Music Festival in Washington State for 15 years. He is also a faculty member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and has held positions at summer festivals around the world.
