Anastasia Christofakis, DM

Anastasia Christofakis is an accomplished clarinetist known for her versatility and dedication to both performance and education. Hailing from a rich cultural background, her artistry is deeply rooted in both classical traditions and modern interpretations, allowing her to bridge a variety of musical styles with technical proficiency and emotional depth. She has performed extensively across the United States and internationally, captivating audiences with her dynamic performances and expressive playing.

Throughout her career, she has been a featured soloist with various orchestras and chamber ensembles, performing a wide array of repertoire from the standard clarinet canon to contemporary and lesser-known works. Her passion for new music has led her to collaborate with numerous composers, premiering new works that expand the possibilities of the instrument. Anastasia is the clarinetist and Vice President of Education and Community Outreach of What Is Noise, an award-winning Pierrot ensemble.

The ensemble has been invited for residencies across the United States, including the Berklee College of Music and the University of Houston and will celebrate their 10th anniversary season with a performance at Lincoln Center in May of 2025. Their second album Temporal Echoes will be released in mid-2025.

In addition to her performance career, Christofakis is a dedicated educator, teaching clarinet to students of all ages and levels. Currently Assistant Professor of Clarinet at Furman University in Greenville, SC, she has served on the faculties of several universities, where she is known for her inspiring and rigorous teaching methods. Her students have gone on to win major competitions and perform in professional ensembles.

Christofakis is also committed to outreach, using music as a means to connect with diverse communities and promote cultural understanding. She is a founding member of the clarinet-piano duo Meraki, whose recurring focus is to evoke the culture and history of people through their folk sound and musical language. They are recipients of Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Award for their collaboration with award-winning composer Jerod Tate. Whether performing on stage or working in the classroom, Anastasia Christofakis continues to shape the future of clarinet performance while honoring its rich traditions.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Presser Foundation, Anastasia traveled to Armenia where she explored their folk music and studied the duduk with Gevorg Dabaghyan at Yerevan State Conservatory. The findings from her project – 2,000 years of history, 100 years of survival: Armenia, the story of a people through their music – has been presented at universities across the United States as well as the International Clarinet Association’s Annual Conference and published in The Clarinet.

Anastasia earned her degrees from the Florida State University (DM), the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University (MM), and James Madison University (BM), where she studied under renowned clarinetists Frank Kowalsky and Deborah Bish (FSU), Greg Smith (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), Carolee Smith (Roosevelt University), Mark Nuccio (formerly New York Philharmonic), and Janice L. Minor (JMU). She is a Royal Global Performing Artist and performs on Firebird clarinets and Brian Corbin clarinet products. When she is not making music, she and her husband are likely playing frisbee with their dog Cheerio or continuing in their quest to find the best pizza in town.