For the past thirty-five years Eric Hoeprich has specialized in performing on historical clarinets, in music from the Baroque to the late Romantic. Educated at Harvard University and the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, he is currently on the faculties of the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, Indiana University (Bloomington) & the Royal Academy in London. A founding member of Frans Brüggen’s Orchestra of the 18th Century (1982), Hoeprich has performed frequently as a soloist with this orchestra, as well as many of the major early music ensembles and several modern orchestras. In the 1980s, he founded two wind ensembles,NACHTMUSIQUE and the Stadler Trio (three basset horns), which have toured around the world. His dozens of recordings have appeared on labels such as Deutsche Grammaphon, Philips, EMI, SONY, Harmonia Mundi, Glossa and Decca. Collaboration with string quartets, chamber ensembles and vocal soloists also feature regularly on his calendar. Recent recordings include clarinet quintets (Mozart and Brahms) with the London Haydn Quartet (Glossa), the three clarinet concertos by Bernhard Crusell withKölner Akademie (ARS Production) and “Sei Sinfonia” by J.C. Bach with Nachtmusique (Glossa).

An interest in historical clarinets has led to the publication of a general text on the clarinet published by Yale University Press (The Clarinet, 2008), as well as numerous articles and contributions to the NewGrove Dictionary. Hoeprich has amassed a collection of more than a hundred antique clarinets, which has also led to restoration as well as construction of replicas of period originals; he maintains a workshop for instrument making at his home near London.