Wagner Campos, Clarinet
Born in Heredia, Costa Rica, Wagner Campos received his musical education in The Conservatorio Castella, The Costa Rican Youth Symphony, Baylor and DePaul University. His principal clarinet teachers in Costa Rica were Orlando Portocarrero, Marvin Bolaņos, Marvin Araya, Donald Hutton, and Vinicio Meza. In the USA, his teachers were Dr. Richard Shanley, Franklin Cohen, principal clarinet of the Cleveland Orchestra, Larry Combs and John Yeh, principal and assistant principal of the Chicago Symphony.
Wagner resides in Chicago were he is a clarinet instructor for The Chicago Merit Music Program and The Sherwood Conservatory of Music, and a substitute clarinetist for The Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He plays for the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, The Joffrey Ballet Orchestra, the Lake Forest Symphony, and Symphony II. As a guest artist outside Chicago, Wagner has participated in concerts with The Milwaukee Symphony, The Alabama Symphony, the Charleston Symphony, and has joined tours with The New World Symphony to Costa Rica, with The Chicago Symphony to Brazil, Argentina, and the USA East Coast and The Gallician Symphony Orchestra to Austria and Alemania.
From 1993 to 1996, Wagner was a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra in where he had the opportunity to work with Maestros such as Pierre Boulez, Sir George Solti, Daniel Baremboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Mariss Janson, Zubin Metha, and Pinchas Zuckerman. In 1998, he was invited to join the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra for a full season as principal clarinet and recorded a compac disc of music by Claude Debussy.
In 1999, he joined the Chicago Chamber Ensemble which runs a season of concerts in the University of Chicago and the The Three Arts Club. As a chamber musician, together with his pianist Roderick Ferguson, he has also performed numerous recitals. Recently the composer Chuck Mason wrote and dedicated a piece for this duo, Senderos que se Bifurcan, which they premiered in the University of Alabama in Birminghan.
In different ocassions, wagner has been invited to perform on the live broadcast of WFMT 98.7 radio station for the Mira Hess Memorial Concert Series. In one of this concerts, Wagner and Roderick Ferguson presented a concert of their most recent recording, Romantic Songs for Clarinet and Piano, receiving great acclaim from Chicago Tribune Critic John Von Rhein.