JOHN DE LA PAZ & BENJAMIN LOEB
CLARINET AND PIANO
ABOUT THE DUO
International clarinetist John De La Paz and Grammy-nominated pianist and conductor Benjamin Loeb share a long-standing artistic partnership developed through more than two decades of performance, collaboration, and artistic exchange. Their work brings together expressive musicianship, adventurous programming, and a shared commitment to connecting performers, students, institutions, and audiences through music.
Together, De La Paz and Loeb present duo recitals, concerto appearances, educational residencies, masterclasses, festival performances, and international cultural programs. Their collaborations have included appearances in the United States and abroad, including performances and educational activities in Latin America, as well as projects involving orchestras, universities, festivals, and cultural institutions.
Their programs combine established clarinet and piano repertoire with contemporary music, commissioned works, and repertoire reflecting John De La Paz’s international artistic career. Whether performing in recital, working with emerging musicians, or developing a customized residency, the duo offers presenters a flexible and engaging artistic partnership designed for both performance and education.
A featured international collaboration brought John De La Paz and Benjamin Loeb together with the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Municipal in Guatemala City. With Benjamin Loeb as guest conductor, John De La Paz appeared as clarinet soloist in Carl Maria von Weber’s Concertino in E-flat Major, Op. 26.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
John De La Paz is an international clarinetist, educator, clinician, recording artist, and advocate for new music whose career spans solo, chamber, orchestral, and educational performance throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Japan. Rooted in the cultural traditions of the American Southwest, his work connects performers, students, institutions, and audiences through musicianship, programming, and collaboration.
Recent projects with Grammy-nominated pianist and conductor Benjamin Loeb have included a concerto appearance with the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Municipal de Guatemala, with Loeb conducting and De La Paz appearing as clarinet soloist in Carl Maria von Weber’s Concertino in E-flat Major, Op. 26, and a duo recital at Guatemala City’s Palacio Nacional de la Cultura. Together, they continue to develop recital, residency, masterclass, festival, concerto, and cultural-programming projects.
De La Paz has appeared as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, guest artist, clinician, lecturer, and orchestral performer. His ensemble experience includes performances with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, New Mexico Philharmonic, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Pops Orchestra, Lensic Festival Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Arizona Contemporary Ensemble, Nextet, Chatter, and Arizona Symphonic Winds.
His festival and conference appearances have included Guatemala Clarifest, International Clarinet Association conferences, and University of Oklahoma Clarinet Symposiums. He has collaborated with performers, composers, and conductors including Benjamin Loeb, Eric Whitacre, Eric Marienthal, Alfonso Molina, Jeffrey Brooks, Sergio Reyes, James Grant, David Maslanka, Daniel Asia, Donald Grantham, Paul Chihara, David Itkin, Odaline de la Martínez, Roberto Minczuk, José Luis Gómez, and Bohuslav Rattay.
A committed supporter of contemporary music, De La Paz has participated in commissions, premieres, recordings, and collaborative projects involving new works for clarinet. These include co-commissioning projects with Benjamin Loeb and Jeffrey Brooks featuring music by Gary Kuo and R. A. Moulds, James Grant’s Seven Shards for trio d’anches, and works associated with composer Michael Miller. His performances may be heard on recordings released by the Klavier and Naxos labels, including projects with wind ensembles and chamber musicians.
John De La Paz serves as a Behn Performing Artist, BG France Performing Artist, and D’Addario Woodwinds Performing Artist. Through performance, education, recording, commissioning, and cultural exchange, he continues to advance the clarinet’s solo, chamber, orchestral, and educational traditions.
Benjamin Loeb is a dynamic, Grammy-nominated conductor, pianist, arranger, educator, arts-administrator and entrepreneurial visionary whose musical life pulses with versatility, adventure and bold artistry. Praised by The Boston Globe for his “[vigorous, cogent playing … that signaled the kind of equally weighted partnership, plus competition, plus mutual quest … that makes this music live],” Loeb’s career is an exhilarating journey through symphonic heights, chamber intimacy, avant-garde premieres and boundary-crossing collaborations.
From the keyboard to the podium, Loeb has enthralled audiences worldwide. He has stormed the stage as soloist under Alan Gilbert with the Boston Pops Orchestra and teamed up with luminaries such as Yo-Yo Ma, JoAnn Falletta, Carl St. Clair and Rossen Milanov in far-ranging projects—from Beethoven and Bruckner symphonies to 16th-century Italian madrigals and rock tours to world premieres of cutting-edge contemporary works.
In the 2024-25 season, Loeb conducted the Dallas Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in a sold-out performance of Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin (by Murry Sidlin) and led performances and recordings with the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra (Ukraine), North Bohemian Opera Ballet Orchestra (Czech Republic) and the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic (Czech). Previously he performed the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas with Robert Chen (Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). His global reach includes a State Department‐invited tour of Argentina and Uruguay as U.S. Artistic Ambassador—performing, giving master classes and igniting young musicians in Latin America.
In 2002, Loeb founded and continues to lead the International Conducting Workshop & Festival—a top-tier training ground for emerging conductors held across the U.S., Ukraine, Bulgaria, Mexico and the Czech Republic, now spanning decades of impact. His entrepreneurial drive extends into arts administration: he served as Executive Director of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra (2013-17), Executive Director of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony and interim Music Director of the New Hampshire Music Festival (2011). As Associate Conductor of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra he founded and directed the El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestra system, building bridges between performance, education and community.
Loeb’s academic credentials are equally formidable: degrees from Harvard University (BA), Curtis Institute of Music (MM), Juilliard School (DMA) and a Graduate Performance Diploma in Conducting from the Peabody Institute. A lifelong learner, he harnesses that training to fuel performances of electric intensity and teaching of profound depth.
At home in Plano, Texas, Loeb lives with his wife, Quyen, and their three children—Anna Sofia Uni, Lulu Ladybug and Ryan “Taco”. His passions extend beyond music: he’s directed theatrical productions, prepared gourmet meals for 65 guests, tutored over 500 students via The Princeton Review, excelled in nearly every sport, and stands unabashed as a lifetime Dallas Cowboys fan.
Whether commanding an orchestra, accompanying a virtuoso soloist, leading pedagogical workshops or growing arts organizations, Benjamin Loeb brings relentless enthusiasm, intellectual depth and a fearless spirit of creativity. He isn’t just part of the musical world—he is reshaping it.
BENJAMIN LOEB ONLINE
ENGAGEMENTS
Duo recitals • University residencies Masterclasses
Festival appearances • Concerto collaborations • International cultural programs