A versatile musician for whom “alternative or avant-garde approaches to his instrument are only part of the everyday tool kit” (Georgia Straight), Canadian clarinetist Dr. Liam Hockley is a dynamic performer of classical music and a passionate advocate for new and experimental work. Equally fluent in classical and contemporary idioms, his repertoire spans the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries.
Liam has performed across three continents, with appearances at the Stockhausen-Konzert und -Kurse (Kürten, DE), Music on Main’s Modulus Festival (Vancouver, BC), Vancouver New Music, KLANGRAUM (Düsseldorf, DE), Tongyeong International Music Festival (Korea), and NUNC! (Evanston, USA). He has appeared as a soloist with the University of British Columbia Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Victoria Symphony, and the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra. He is currently Sound Artist in Residence at the West Vancouver Memorial Library, and has previously held residencies with Music on Main and Simon Fraser University’s School for Contemporary Arts.
An active freelance performer, Liam regularly appears with major ensembles across British Columbia; since 2020, he has served as clarinetist with the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra. He is also a committed educator with extensive experience in post-secondary, conservatory, and private settings. He currently teaches clarinet and chamber music at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, where his students have won international competitions, performed with leading youth ensembles, and gone on to top university programs.
Liam’s recorded work has received critical acclaim: Pulse-Tide, his debut solo album, was named one of The Wire’s 10 best Modern Classical releases of 2024, praised as “at once vigorous and forensic, grappling with this music’s overall physicality, while also paying microscopic attention to its fine details, its agitated particles and molecular trails.” Forthcoming releases include a collaborative project with composer Ray Evanoff and an EP of solo improvisations with electronics.
Liam holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of British Columbia, where his dissertation (Performing Complexity) explored performer agency in complexist music. His writing has been published in The Clarinet and FOCI Arts/Words, and his work has been supported by SSHRC, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the BC Arts Council. His principal clarinet teachers include Cris Inguanti, François Houle, Patricia Kostek, Earl Thomas, and Christian Gossart.
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