Diane Heffner is an active freelance clarinetist and teacher on both modern and historical instruments. She plays period clarinets with Handel & Haydn Society, Arcadia Players, Boston Baroque, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco). As a modern clarinetist Ms. Heffner performs regularly with Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, Alea III, Solar Winds, Alcyon Chamber Ensemble, “Rumbarocco” Latin- Baroque fusion ensemble, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and various other freelance ensembles.
With her jazz/blues/rock group, “Kate and the Finn-Tones,” Ms. Heffner plays her tenor sax and clarinet at cafes and dance parties. Also, she is a member of Boston’s only all women swing big band “the Mood Swings Orchestra.”
Ms. Heffner is on the applied faculty at Tufts University, the Cambridge School of Weston, and the All-Newton Music School and has been a chamber music coach at both the Chamber Music Center of the East and the Wellesley Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center. She received both BM and MM degrees with honors from the New England Conservatory where she studied clarinet with Joseph Allard and chamber music with Rudolph Kolisch and Leonard Shure.
