Aileen Razey
As a clarinetist, educator, concert producer, and artistic director, Aileen Razey cultivates artistic environments that are welcoming, grounded in introspection and dialogue, and foster emotional awareness and thoughtful engagement with current events. She provides a space for audiences to pause, reflect, and connect with their own selves so that they may more meaningfully interact with the people and the world around them.
With the help of strong collaborative ties with other artists, educators, and community collaborators, the musical spaces Razey creates allow audience members to reflect on complex ideas, while also offering action steps forward. In collaboration with Minnesota-based musicians, artists, scientists, and mental health experts, her current project, From Roots to Wings, provides musical and educational entry points for the Minneapolis, MN community to explore their relationship with nature and the emotional weight of climate change and climate anxiety.
Dr. Razey’s performing and teaching are deeply interconnected, each directly informing and strengthening the other. As Assistant Professor of Music at St. Olaf College, MN, she teaches applied clarinet, chamber music, and Professional Practices. Dedicated to helping her students clarify their unique vocation and career goals, her advisees of various majors uncover how music plays a role in their lives now and in the future. She is a returning panelist for the Environmental Studies discussion of environmental careers in the arts. Dr. Razey brings her understanding of the music industry and music administration into her teaching and advising, developed by her position as a Woodwind Clinician with D’Addario and Artistic Director of the Bridge Chamber Music Festival, and previous roles as a 2026 NAMM Show College Music Faculty Fellow and College Music Society Northeast Chapter President, Performance Chair, and Conference Host.
Aileen is committed to commissioning and premiering works by living composers, ensuring their music be heard and experienced by audiences around the globe through performances and recordings. Razey is a founding member, clarinetist, and movement artist with The International Collective, an interdisciplinary ensemble merging the traditional roles of artists on stage commissioning new contemporary classical repertoire for clarinet, double bass, and piano.
Music is Razey’s outlet to connect with musicians and audiences around the world. From house concerts with the Klangspuren Schwaz International Ensemble Modern Academy in Austria, to a boardwalk concert with the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland, to the stages and ice cream shops of the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado, music is the force that drives connection with diverse audiences and international artists. She has performed with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Syracuse Orchestra, and Savaria Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), and recorded five records with the North Texas Wind Symphony during her DMA studies.
While the foundation of her performing is rooted in Western classical repertoire, she enjoys engaging with new musical cultures through studying clarinet techniques with leading pedagogues in each style. As a jazz clarinet soloist, she performed with the St. Olaf Jazz Band at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. After learning klezmer clarinet playing recently, Razey collaborated with the Artaria String Quartet in performances at the Stringwood Music Festival and Bridge Chamber Music Festival.