Janet Hilton

Born in Liverpool, England, she studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music (1961–1965), followed by postgraduate study at the Vienna Konservatorium (1966). Between 1970 and 1973, she performed as principal clarinet with the Welsh National Opera, then continued on to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (1973–1980) and the Kent Opera (1984). Hilton recorded key works for the clarinet with the Lindsay String Quartet, including quintets by Mozart, Brahms, and von Weber, as well as English composers Arnold Bax, Arthur Bliss, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Michael Bryant acknowledges her as one of the contributors to the British tradition of clarinet playing. Four clarinet concertos have been dedicated to her: John McCabe's Clarinet Concerto (1977), Edward Harper's Clarinet Concerto (1982), Elizabeth Maconchy's Concertino for Clarinet and Small Orchestra (1984), and Alun Hoddinott's Concerto No. 2, Op. 128 (1986). These four concertos were released with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rumon Gamba on the album Dedications (Clarinet Classics, 2000). In 2016, she released Flying Solo, solo clarinet literature dating from 1919 through 2000. In his review of the album, Anthony J. Costa writes, 'The styles hint at a variety of influences including blues (Turnage), ragtime (Stravinsky), ''commedia dell'Arte'' (Cahuzac), poetry of Wordsworth (Roxburg), nature (Messaien), mythology (Crosse) and Indian classical music (Mayer).' == Discography, selected ==