About

Dr. Jenny Maclay is a Henri Selmer Paris Artist and Vandoren Artist-Clinician, performer, educator, and creator known as Jenny Clarinet. Her multifaceted career spans solo, chamber, and orchestral performance, teaching, digital content, and international music and cultural exploration. She has taught at Brandon University in Canada, Iowa State University, and Harper College, and has presented recitals, masterclasses, and educational programs at institutions around the world. From concert halls and conservatories to some of the world’s most remote environments, Jenny uses the clarinet to connect with people, cultures, and ideas across the globe.

Online, Jenny is known as Jenny Clarinet, her eponymous platform dedicated to making the clarinet more engaging and enjoyable through practical tips (like her Cheat Code Fingerings series), practice advice, and stories from her travels and explorations of clarinet culture around the globe. She is the TonalEnergy Woodwind Teaching Artist, and she also serves as Publicity & Social Media Coordinator for the European Clarinet Association.

Jenny is an avid traveller, and her musical inspiration comes from exploring, researching, and connecting with clarinet cultures around the world. To date, she has visited and performed in more than 50 countries, meeting fellow clarinetists and discovering local musical traditions along the way. Recent artist residencies include Arctic Culture Lab in Ilulissat, Greenland, and Spitsbergen Artist Residency in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, the northernmost settlement in the world. She will return to Svalbard in late 2026 for a series of concerts marking the beginning of Polar Night, the annual period when the sun remains below the horizon for months at a time. These projects focus on researching clarinet music from the high Arctic while using music to engage with the region and raise awareness of climate change. (Read more about these projects here.)

In 2021, she was selected by the Council of Faroese Artists as an artist-in-residence in Tjørnuvík, Faroe Islands, where she performed and promoted clarinet compositions by Faroese composers at the 2022 and 2023 Summartónar Festivals. In 2022, she was named an Artist-in-Residence Niederösterreich, studying the clarinet compositions of Ernst Krenek and his wife Gladys Nordenstrom during her residency in Krems-an-der-Donau, Austria. Her travels continue to shape her programming and artistic curiosity, and Jenny often programs music from around the world, including Faroese clarinet duets, music by female Baltic composers, and clarinet music of the Balkans.

Jenny has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral clarinetist around the world, appearing at venues and institutions including the Grieg Academy, Singapore Raffles Music College, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Conservatorio di Musica L. Refice, Ernst Krenek Institut, Listasavn Føroya (Faroese National Gallery), and Alte Schmiede Vienna. She has performed the Mozart Clarinet Quintet at La Seine Musicale and Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris, as well as appearing as a featured soloist and recitalist in Europe and North America. Upcoming engagements include a performance at the Belgrade Cultural Center in Serbia in 2027 and appearing as a soloist with the Sofia Wind Orchestra in Bulgaria.

Her orchestral experience includes performances with the Ensemble Orchestral Les Voyages Extraordinaires, Écoute Ensemble de Musique Contemporaine, Orchestre d’Harmonie de Levallois, Florida Orchestra, Valdosta Symphony, Lima Symphony, Opera Huntsville, and Ocala Symphony. In 2017, she toured with the Jeune Philharmonie franco-allemande et hongroise, an international orchestra comprised of musicians from over 20 different countries.

Jenny was the recipient of the 2015–2016 Harriet Hale Woolley Award for musical study in Paris, where she was an artist-in-residence at the Fondation des États-Unis. She received her Doctorat en musique, interprétation at the Université de Montréal, Master of Musique, interprétation, et patrimoine at the Versailles Conservatoire, and Bachelor of Music Degree at the University of Florida. Her teachers include Philippe Cuper, Karl Leister, André Moisan, Mitchell Estrin, Todd Waldecker, John Cooper, and Donald Dowdy. She has received numerous musical honors throughout her career, including recognition as a prizewinner, finalist, and semi-finalist in international competitions such as Concert Artists Guild and Astral Artists. Other honors include first prize at the Clé d’Or International Music Competition and highest-ranking clarinetist at the Tunbridge Wells International Young Artist Competition in England.

Her interest in musicpreneurship, marketing, and music industry have continued alongside her performing career, and she has given lectures on these subjects at institutions including the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien, Eiði Musikkskúlin, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, University of Oregon, Arizona State University, Louisiana State University, University of Memphis, University of Iowa, Loyola University, Millikin University, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, and University of Southern Mississippi. She has also been a featured soloist at the keynote ceremony of the Alabama Music Educators Association Conference.

Jenny Clarinet has been featured in The Clarinet and the Clarineat podcast and has been named one of Feedspot’s “Top 40 Clarinet Influencers” and “Top 20 Clarinet Blogs, Websites, and Influencers to Follow.” To date, she has published over 450 articles that have been read in more than 180 countries and translated into multiple languages, and she has contributed articles featured in The Clarinet, Vandoren WAVE newsletter, Deutsche Klarinetten-Gesellschaft, and other industry websites.

In addition to clarinet, Jenny is a theremin enthusiast. The theremin is an early electronic instrument and the only musical instrument played without physical contact. After writing this blog post, Jenny became fascinated by the instrument and has since collaborated and performed with theremin virtuosi Grégoire Blanc and Charlie Draper. Her theremin collaborations have included performances of works combining clarinet, theremin, and piano. You can listen to some of these collaborations here and here.

When she’s not onstage or in a practice room, Jenny enjoys exploring the world. During her travels, she likes to befriend the local cats and enjoys reading books at kitschy cafés. Her caffeination of choice is espresso or Earl Grey tea.

Here are some fun facts and FAQ to learn more about Jenny Clarinet (and a few more here).