Eric Schultz is an American clarinetist equally in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and interpreter of new music. Hailed a “mastermind” in the Myrtle Beach Herald, Schultz was recently selected as a quarterfinalist for the 2025 GRAMMY® Music Educator of the Year Award. As a performer, he maintains an active concerto schedule performing with orchestras around the country and has appeared in concert with preeminent artists such as Valerie Coleman and Joshua Bell in top halls across the world. He can be seen on Netflix and heard on National Public Radio.

An uncompromising advocate for the music of our time whose unique voice on the clarinet has inspired many of today’s finest composers, Schultz is known for his liquid, soulful tone quality and singular abilities on the instrument, including an unrivaled five-octave range, limitless facility of technique, and improvisations that span many dialects. Dubbed a “superstar muse” by celebrated composer Amanda Harberg, Schultz has commissioned and/or premiered the music of Valerie Coleman, Leila Adu-Gilmore, Jonathan Bailey Holland, David Sanford, Mary Watkins, Liliya Ugay, Chiayu Hsu, Tony Solitro, Johanny Navarro, Armando Bayolo, Carlos Carrillo, Iván Enrique Rodríguez, and many more. His performing has been featured extensively by NPR through syndication.

Exalted a “pathfinder” by iconic composer Valerie Coleman, Schultz encourages an individualized, project-based and passion-fueled creative approach to music learning while advocating for living composers and expanding repertoire lists toward a more intentionally inclusive and relevant future model. He is known for his transformational masterclasses with recent residencies at the Conservatorio de Música Ástor Piazzolla in Buenos Aires, Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, New York University, California State University Fullerton, and more. Schultz currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Coastal Carolina University, where he is coordinator of the woodwind area and director of the Center for Inclusive Excellence. As a founding faculty of the center, he coined the phrase and created The [Represent]atoire Project, a play on the words repertoire and representation. The project advocates for including a diversity of composers in collegiate music curricula by intensely focusing on living composers.

Highlights of the current season include a recital tour across Argentina, concerti from Weber, Copland, Corigliano and more with orchestras spanning the US, and new projects for Netflix and Amazon Video. His debut solo album, Polyglot, is to be released this year by Parma Recordings and features several virtuosic new works dedicated to him. Schultz completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance at Stony Brook University. As a Buffet Crampon performing artist, he performs exclusively on Buffet Crampon clarinets. @ericschultzclarinet