Eric Seddon (BM, 1994),
studied clarinet at Hartt from 1990-1994. He currently lives in Cleveland with
his wife, Elisa (BM in flute, BS in Chemistry 1995) and their seven children.
What have you been up to
since graduating from Hartt?
Twenty years is a long
time, and a great deal has happened. Obviously the biggest things are personal:
Elisa and I have been married for 22 years now, and have been blessed with
seven beautiful children. As any creative artist will tell you, to have that
sort of stability—a spouse and family who care and are supportive of your
work—is irreplaceable.
Musically speaking,
after Hartt I went on to graduate work at Butler University, then played in
regional symphony orchestras, teaching briefly at the Cleveland Music School Settlement
before being forced into an unexpected ‘early retirement.’ Since childhood, I’d
had a severe heart condition that grew increasingly worse. By age 28 it had
progressed to the point that I couldn’t breathe well enough to play, and
doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Packing up the clarinet was
excruciating, but something I had to do for my health’s sake. So for several
years I turned my efforts to writing; publishing academic pieces on music
history, performance reviews, CD reviews, and some poetry. I even spent a
couple of years selling clarinets for a prominent German instrument maker. In
short, I tried to stay involved with music in whatever way I could.
Then, around 2010,
everything changed for the better. A cardiologist diagnosed me correctly, and I
had open heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. An operation like that can
change your life in many ways. Thankfully, the surgery was a resounding
success, and I spent the next three years rebuilding my technique to a
professional level. I’m grateful my wife and kids understood the type of drive
that can make a 38 year old practice for five or six hours a day—before
sunrise, during meals, and after bedtime, if necessary. I played my first gig
in fourteen years this past January, and have been performing steadily, often
several times a week, ever since.
What are you involved
with right now?
The Cleveland jazz
scene. I’m grateful so many musicians here have given me a chance to play—and
have responded enthusiastically to what I do. George Foley was the first.
Anyone on the scene here knows his work—his piano and band leading skills are
mainstays at venues like Nighttown, Bon Vivant, the Barking Spider,
and the Tavern Co. Through George I met a community of artists, getting
opportunities to play with Gene Epstein’s Jazz Hot, Kevin Richards &
Friends, jazz violinist Reed Simon, and Brad Smedley, who has hired me a couple
of times to play with his gypsy jazz group Hot Djang.
Beyond these
opportunities, I’m in the beginning stages of organizing my own group, Eric
Seddon’s Hot Club, an ensemble featuring my clarinet through the lens of
New Orleans, gypsy jazz, and swing. The idea is to have a creative fusion of
those elements, which are in many ways the most important roots and continued
areas of innovation for jazz clarinet.
What is one of the most
memorable things about your time at Hartt?
There are so many that
I can hardly do the question justice, but one quote will have to suffice, as it
encompasses the importance of the student-teacher relationship so central to
conservatory study. I entered Hartt as a young man who had just gigged in the
French Quarter of New Orleans, and whose primary goal was to play jazz. Back
then clarinetists weren’t really accepted into jazz programs, and because of
this, I was more encouraged to get a degree in classical performance.
At my audition for
Hartt, Charles Russo, who was himself a proficient jazz musician, was
understanding about my jazz concept, and said he would tailor my lessons in
that direction.
