David Ehrke received his musical training at San Francisco State University (Bachelor of Music), The New England Conservatory of Music (Master of Music) and the University of Southern California (Doctor of Musical Arts in Clarinet Performance), where he was a student of Mitchell Lurie.
Dr. Ehrke is principal clarinet with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra and has been a featured soloist with the Reno Chamber Orchestra and the Reno Philharmonic on both clarinet and saxophone. His Reno Saxophone Quartet was a finalist ensemble in the Chamber Music Chicago National Discovery Competition in 1986 which was broadcast nationally on WFMT from the Chicago Public Library. Ehrke performed for 15 years with the Midsummer Mozart Festival Orchestra in San Francisco and has played principal clarinet with many orchestras, including the New Sousa Band conducted by Keith Brion, the California Symphony, the Las Vegas Symphony, the Reno Chamber Orchestra, Western Opera Theater and the Nevada Opera Orchestra. Additionally, Dr. Ehrke has worked as either clarinetist or conductor with a wide variety of artists including Dick Van Dyke, Ray Charles, Eddie Daniels, Michael Bolton, Luciano Pavarotti and Douglas Fairbanks Jr to name just a few. He has appeared as both clarinet soloist and conductor on National Public Radio's Monday Night Blockbusters and is a regular performer of chamber music in the Reno area.
Ehrke's conducting credits include the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, the Reno Chamber Orchestra and the Nevada Festival Ballet, including their annual production of The Nutcracker. He conducted Hadassah's production of The Music Man and The King and I, the Flamingo Hilton production of A Chorus Line, and most recently the Reno Philharmonic programs at the Lake Tahoe Summer Music Festival. He has been featured on National Public Radio's Performance Today conducting an all-Mozart program with members of the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet and the San Francisco Opera orchestras, which was aired nationally in 1991.
Dr. Ehrke received both the 1986 Outstanding Teacher Award and the 1996 Mousel/Feltner Award for Excellence in Creative Activity at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is a professor of music.
