For more than 50 years the clarinetist Stanley McCartney has delighted and moved audiences with his unique, luminous serene sonority, dazzling virtuosity and musical sensitivity. He was born in Vancouver on March 15, 1930, and first studied clarinet in Vancouver with Bernard Temoin. As the principal clarinet of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, McCartney played under conductors Karel Ancerl, Andrew Davis, Igor Stravinsky, Erich Leinsdorf, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Sanderling and Zubin Mehta. He was also the principal clarinet of the Canadian Opera from 1985 to 2010. Described by The New York Times as an “absolutely first-rate group”, the legendary Orford String Quartet, a jewel in the history of Canadian classical music, is regarded as “one of Canada’s national treasures”, and one of the finest international string quartets of all time.