Accent on Performance Concert Favorites Collection: Alto Clarinet Book

These arrangements deliver genuine musical satisfaction for alto clarinet players without padding the part with busywork. The variety of contemporary styles keeps rehearsals engaging while maintaining the technical consistency that makes this collection work seamlessly alongside the Accent on Achievement method, allowing you to reinforce concepts directly from your daily lessons.

These pieces swing from orchestral grandeur to playful character studies, each one designed to feel complete and satisfying rather than like a study in disguise. You'll experience the genuine engagement that comes from playing arrangements that respect both your growing abilities and your musical taste.

Alto clarinet players in concert bands at the middle school through early high school level will find exactly what they need in this collection. Teachers using Accent on Achievement will recognize these arrangements as the perfect bridge between method-book exercises and full concert repertoire.

• Balance your tone across registers when moving between the written passages. Alto clarinets tend toward brightness in the upper register and thickness below the staff; aim for consistency by adjusting your embouchure rather than air speed.
• Mark your phrasing carefully during the first read. These arrangements often divide musical phrases unevenly across the ensemble, and knowing where your part breathes prevents you from playing through important rests.
• Work through any awkward articulation patterns in isolation before adding them to ensemble context. The contemporary styles here sometimes use staccato or accent patterns that feel unnatural at first glance.

Build your autumn and winter concert programs around clusters of these pieces, using them as anchor selections between more substantial works or as entire concert suites. Since they correlate with specific pages in Accent on Achievement, you can program them strategically throughout the year as students master corresponding method-book material, creating natural performance opportunities that reinforce classroom learning.

• Reading and performing in varied contemporary styles
• Maintaining consistent tone quality across registers
• Balancing articulation patterns at ensemble tempo
• Phrase shaping with varied harmonic contexts
• Alto clarinet-specific intonation control in ensemble settings