Bernard Portnoy
Bernard Portnoy was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 4, 1914. His parents, Bennie and Rachael Portnoy were Russian-Jewish émigrés from the Ukraine who came to Pittsburgh in 1906. Bernard Portnoy began playing the clarinet at age 13. In about 1931, Bernard gained admission to the Curtis Institute, where he studied with Robert McGinnis . McGinnis and Portnoy shared an interesting number of Principal clarinet positions over their careers, including of the Cleveland Orchestra, the NBC Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Bernard Portnoy graduated from Curtis in the Class of 1937. Following graduation, Bernard Portnoy was appointed Principal clarinet of the Pittsburgh Symphony by Fritz Reiner, serving from about 1937-1940. In the 1940-1941 season, Bernard Portnoy returned to Philadelphia to join the Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra as Principal clarinet. Portnoy remained in Philadelphia as Principal for four seasons 1940-1943. During World War 2, beginning in 1943, Portnoy entered the US Merchant Marine, although he remained on the official roster of the Philadelphia Orchestra until 1946. At the conclusion of World War 2, in 1946, Portnoy was not returned to the Principal clarinet position in Philadelphia, so is listed as Philadelphia Principal clarinet 1940-1943. There are some accounts that Portnoy had alienated certain of his Philadelphia colleagues. Instead, in 1946 he joined the Cleveland Orchestra.
Bernard Portnoy went to Cleveland in George Szell's second season as Music Director, 1947-1948. Portnoy remained in Cleveland for six seasons. Then in 1953, Portnoy joined the NBC Symphony for the last two seasons of Arturo Toscanini tenure. After the NBC Symphony, remaining in New York, Portnoy was a New York sessions musician and played on Broadway, including the Broadway cast recording of My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. In New York, Portnoy also played regularly in the WOR Mutual Broadcasting Orchestra, which had the advantage of year-around employment (unlike any of the symphony orchestras of that era other than the Boston Symphony). While in Philadelphia, Portnoy taught at the Curtis Institute, and then at the Julliard School in the 1950s and early 1960s while in New York City. For example, Franklin Cohen , later also Principal clarinet of the Cleveland Orchestra studied with Bernard Portnoy at Juilliard. Then for 20 years, Bernard Portnoy taught clarinet at Indiana University in the 1970s and 1980s. In his retirement from orchestra life, and while at Indiana University, Bernard Portnoy became a successful designer and manufacturer of clarinet mouthpieces and ligatures. Bernard Portnoy died in Marin County, California, north of San Francisco, on December 2, 2006, two days before his 92nd birthday.
Sibelius Symphony No1 Mvt1
Philadelphia Orchestra, Ormandy
Strauss "Don Quixote" Mvt1
Philadelphia Orchestra, Ormandy, Emanuel Feuerman, cello
