Averett, Janet M
Professor, Music & Dance
Associate Director Music and Dance
Preferred: janet.averett@sjsu.edu
Telephone
Preferred: (408) 924-4682
Alternate: (408) 924-4673
Office Hours
By appointment and email
Please note that the best way to contact me is by email.
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy, Northwestern Univ, 1983
- Bachelor of Music, Instrumental Music Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1980
- Master of Music, Clarinet Performance, Northwestern University, 1983
- D.M.A., Clarinet Performance, Univeristy of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1986
Bio
Dr. Janet Averett, clarinetist and conductor, received her degrees from the University of Michigan, Northwestern University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her clarinet teachers include Fred Ormand, Rosario Mazzeo, Russell Dagon, John Weigand, Robert Marcellus, and Clark Brody. Dr. Averett is a member of the Opera San José Orchestra and she San Francisco Midsummer Mozart Festival orchestra as well as Keith Brion’s New Sousa Band (where she has played principal clarinet). She also plays regularly with the Symphony Silicon Valley and Ballet San José. Additionally, she has also performed with the San José Symphony, the American Musical Theater of San José (where she can be heard on the original cast recording of The Three Muskateers), the California Symphony, the American Ballet Theater, the Grant Park Symphony (Chicago), the Chicago Music of the Baroque, Concertante di Chicago, Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Greensboro (NC) Symphony, the San José-Cleveland Ballet, the Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic, and the Lake Forest Symphony in Chicago. She was a soloist along with Mark Brandenburg in the Alea II Concerts of new music at Stanford University in 1998 and with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra in 1999 and with the San Jose Wind Symphony in May 0f 2007. With members of the San José Chamber Orchestra, she performed the unequaled Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time in February 2004 and on the Ralston Series at the College of Notre Dame in November of 2004. She also performed with colleagues Gwendolyn Mok, Ethan Filner and Joseph Frank on a SJSU faculty recital in October of 2005. 2008-2009 performances included continued engagements with Opera San José, Symphony Silicon Valley, the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Ballet San Jose, the San Francisco Midsummer Mozart Festival and on basset horn in a San Francisco performance of the Mozart Requiem. Most recently she performed as principal clarinetist with the New Sousa Band in concerts in Columbus, Ohio, and at the WASBE conference in Cincinnati. She has also sponsored various performers and master classes at SJSU. In the fall 2009 she sponsored a class with Mariam Adam, clarinetist of the Imani Winds. In February 2010, she sponsored a concert with Robert Spring and JB Smith of Arizona State University.
Dr. Averett has given numerous Bay area solo and chamber recitals and has taught clarinet, woodwind fundamentals, music literature, conducted chamber music groups and bands, and served as Acting and Associate Director at San José State University where she has been on the faculty since 1986. Most recently she was the conductor of the University Symphony Orchestra from 2000-2010. She also appeared as conductor with the San José Wind Symphony at the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles festival in Austria in 1997 and on several other occasions at venues in the Bay area. She has served as adjudicator for various bay area band and solo festivals. She was the orchestra conductor for the Campbell Unified School district festival in April, 2008. She founded the San José (South Bay) Clarinet Choir, which has presented annual concerts since 1991 as well as sponsored guest soloists, recitals and lectures. She has presented numerous band, orchestra, and clarinet clinics throughout the Bay area and Sacramento, including at the winter session for the Bay section of the CMEA. She has presented several clarinet clinics for teachers at the California Music Educators Association annual conference since 1988.