Brendan Fairleigh

Originally from Olathe, Kansas, Brendan Fairleigh is a second-year Clarinet Fellow at the New World Symphony. He has held the E-flat Clarinet position with Dallas Winds, one of the country’s best-known professional wind ensembles, since 2022. Brendan received his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas, where he studied with Drs. Lawrence Maxey and Stephanie Zelnick. He received his master of music degree from the University of Texas at Austin under the tutelage of Jonathan Gunn. Brendan’s other major teachers include NWS alumni Jason Shafer and Raymond Santos, as well as Paul Garner and Ashley White.

Brendan is a passionate chamber musician and a founding member of the Apophis Reeds, a professional reed quintet based in Austin, Texas and first place winner of the 2024 Coltman Chamber Music Competition. Brendan has been a fellow at the Round Top Festival Institute in both 2019 and 2021, where he performed major works from the orchestral and chamber music repertoire. Additionally, he has maintained a private clarinet studio of about 50 middle and high school clarinetists in the Austin area for the past six years. Outside of music, Brendan loves cats, board games and reading.