Nicole Kern has been solo clarinettist at the State Theatre in Stuttgart since September 2005. She was born in Singen in 1978 and received her first clarinet lessons at the age of 7. She enjoyed her first musical success at an early stage and was awarded first prize at the Federal Music Competition “Jugend musiziert” in 1991 and 1993. At the age of 13 Nicole Kern became a junior student under Prof. Waldemar Wandel at the State College of Music in Trossingen, where she began to study full-time in 1995. She changed to Prof. Francois Benda at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin the following year. In 1997 Nicole Kern became a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) and received a scholarship from the Karajan Foundation of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000. The following year she was engaged as solo clarinettist at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Between 2002 and 2004 she was solo clarinettist at the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen, where she was involved in many radio and TV recordings, and held the same position in 2004/5 at the Comic Opera in Berlin. Nicole Kern now also holds a teaching post in Clarinet at the UdK Berlin, where she passes on her extensive orchestral and chamber music experience to her students.
