Aspiring Hungarian clarinetist Noémi Sallai was selected as the sole clarinet fellow in
Carnegie Hall’s prestigious music program, Ensemble Connect for the 2018-2020 season. A
devoted chamber musician, Ms. Sallai has spent her summers at the Crescendo Summer
Institute in Hungary, the Sarasota Music Festival in Florida and the Norfolk Chamber Music
Festival, where she collaborated with such renowed artists as Charles Neidich, Frank Morelli
and Peter Frankl. Ms. Sallai has been an active participant in up-and-coming music festivals
such as the St. Andrew’s Music Festival in Canada, the ContemporArt Music Festival in
Romania and the Altalena Music Festival in Tuscany, Italy and she is a member of the Bard
Alumni Ensemble.
As a passionate interpreter of solo repertoire written for the clarinet, Ms. Sallai premiered
works for her instrument in the United States through The Juilliard School’s Focus! Festival
and has received first prize at several national and international clarinet competitions. As the
winner of the 2018 PRISMA Concerto Competition in Canada, Ms. Sallai had the
opportunity to play in the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, in Russia. She was featured as
soloist at the Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi concert series and received first prize at the
2018 International Internet Music Competition and appeared at such prestigious stages as the
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C, Jazz at Lincoln Center and all
three stages of Carnegie Hall in New York. An enthusiast of orchestral music, she went on
tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, conductred by Iván Fischer, to Edinburgh,
Budapest and New York participating in their production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
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Ms. Sallai appeared as a clarinetist in such renowned groups as the Orpheus Chamber
Orchestra, the Binghamton Symphony Orchestra, The Princeton Symphony Orchestra, the
Symphony in C, the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble and the
Axiom contemprorary music ensemble. Playing all positions in the Bard Conservatory
Orchestra, she took part in three major orchestra tours to China, to several cities in Europe
and to Cuba. In 2014, being the winner of the Concerto Competition, Ms. Sallai was featured
as a soloist and performed Carl Nielsen`s Clarinet Concerto with the Bard Conservatory
Orchestra. In 2013 she performed as principal clarinet player Shostakovich`s 10th Symphony
with the Bard Conservatory Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall. Ms. Sallai also participated in the
Zoltán Kodály World Orchestra conducted by the renowned Hungarian pianist and conductor
Tamás Vásáry.
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​Ms. Sallai holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School of Music, where she
was a recepient of the Irene Diamond and R. & H. Gold Woodwind Award. She completed
her Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degrees at Bard College, receiving the László Z.
Bitó Scholarship. Her principal teachers included Jon Manasse, David Krakauer, Anthony
McGill and Laura Flax.
Currently Ms. Sallai serves as the Cultural Attaché of the Liszt Institute Hungarian Cultural
Center in New York.