Biography
Clarinetist · Educator · Producer
Richie Hawley is a clarinetist, educator, and producer whose work is united by a singular attention to sound, imagination, and artistic individuality. Whether performing onstage, guiding young musicians, or shaping a recording in the studio, he approaches music as both a craft and a living, collaborative experience. As the founder of Il Pirata Records, he brings these perspectives together, creating recordings that preserve the character, spontaneity, and emotional presence of exceptional artists.
For seventeen years, Hawley served as Principal Clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, establishing himself as one of the leading orchestral clarinetists of his generation. His playing, distinguished by its warmth, lyricism, and remarkable fluidity, became a defining voice in the orchestra’s sound. During his tenure, he appeared on over 65 recordings with the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops, including many of the orchestra’s celebrated Telarc releases. His performance of the clarinet solo in Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony was described by American Record Guide as the crowning achievement of the recording.
Since stepping away from orchestral life in 2011 to join the faculty of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he is Professor of Clarinet, Hawley has continued to shape the musical lives of performers through teaching and mentorship. His work with students reflects the same values that guide his performing and producing: an uncompromising commitment to excellence, a curiosity about sound, and the belief that technique exists in service of expression. His students have gone on to hold positions in many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and many others.
Hawley is also a longtime faculty artist at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, where his teaching and masterclasses have become an important part of the Academy’s summer program.
In 2021, Hawley founded Il Pirata Records, an independent record label born from a desire to approach recorded music with greater artistic freedom and a renewed attention to the listening experience. The label embraces music that moves naturally across genres and traditions, bringing together exceptional artists whose work is defined by imagination, individuality, and a distinctive musical voice.
As a producer, Hawley brings the perspective of a performing musician to every stage of the recording process. His approach is rooted in the belief that a great recording should preserve not only the detail and beauty of a performance, but also its spontaneity, emotional presence, and sense of space. Working closely with artists and recording engineers, he seeks to create recordings that feel natural, immersive, and deeply connected to the music itself.
Through Il Pirata Records, Hawley has produced projects spanning contemporary classical music, chamber music, experimental repertoire, and the meeting of folk and early-music traditions. His productions include Steven Banks’s Cries, Sighs and Dreams with the Dover Quartet, pianist Conor Hanick’s The Book of Sounds, and Rebecca Scout Nelson’s Wild Iris, an album that brings together American folk songwriting with the instruments and expressive language of Baroque music. Each project reflects the label’s commitment to artistic individuality, sonic craftsmanship, and music that resists easy categorization.
Hawley’s own recording A Gentle Notion, with pianist Conor Hanick, marked the inaugural release of Il Pirata Records, bringing together newly commissioned compositions and fresh interpretations of established repertoire.
A native Californian, Hawley began studying clarinet at the age of nine with Yehuda Gilad at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. He made his orchestral solo debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at thirteen, followed by his New York Philharmonic debut at fourteen. He later studied with Donald Montanaro at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he also appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
His early distinctions include the Gold Medal as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, presented at the White House in 1988, the Coleman-Barstow Prize for chamber music, and two Léni Fé Bland Foundation Career Grants. In 2009, he received the Glover Award for outstanding teaching at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Hawley is a performing artist for Buffet Crampon and D’Addario Woodwinds.
Although his professional life has taken him across the country and around the world, Hawley has maintained a deep connection to his California roots. He divides his time between Houston and his hometown of Santa Barbara, where he continues a lifelong love of the ocean through surfing.
Across performance, teaching, and record production, his work continues to be shaped by a singular conviction: that the most meaningful musical experiences begin with careful listening, a willingness to explore, and a genuine connection to the artists and music at hand.