Bio

Oskar Espina Ruiz has emerged as one of the leading clarinetists of his generation, praised as a concerto soloist at the Casals Festival for his “masterful virtuosity” (El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico), and admired for his “rhapsodic ease” and “generous, tender warmth” (The Millbrook Independent) in chamber music collaborations with the top string quartets and piano trios of our time.

He has performed at major concert halls and festivals to high critical acclaim, including recitals in New York City, Washington DC, Moscow, Madrid, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. He has appeared as soloist with the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony (Russia), St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic (Russia), Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (Casals Festival, Puerto Rico), Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Asunción (Paraguay) and Bilbao Symphony (Spain).

Highlights of recent seasons include his sold-out concert tour of Spain with Terra String Quartet in 2026; his Casals Festival debut as soloist with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of Alfonso Fuentes’ Clarinet Concerto; a Music Mountain performance of the complete Brahms Clarinet Sonatas with pianist Misha Dichter; as well as his recital program, Brilliant American Women Composers of Our Time, with works by Teresa Carreño, Amy Beach, Gabriela Lena Frank, Eleanor Alberga, Jessie Montgomery, Joan Tower, Jennifer Higdon, and Claudia Montero. His Clarinet Quintet Project in three parts at Music Mountain in 2026 included premieres of quintets by Alfonso Fuentes, Seth Grosshandler and Javier Montiel in collaborations with the Erinys, Ulysses and Cassatt Quartets.

His 2026-2027 season includes performances of the Brahms Quintet and Danielpour’s “The Last Jew in Hamadan” with the Terra and Erinys String Quartets, a new recital program with pianist Victoria Schwartzman including works by Mieczysław Weinberg, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Andreia Pinto-Correia, as well as chamber music concerts with UNCSA faculty colleagues.

His chamber music collaborations include the American, Argus, Arianna, Ariel, Balourdet, Cassatt, Daedalus, Erinys, Escher, Euclid, Latinoamericano, Penderecki, Shanghai, Terra, Ulysses and Verona Quartets; the Quintet of the Americas; Merz, Poulenc and Reverón Trios; pianists Misha Dichter, Benjamin Hochman, Ursula Oppens and Anthony Newman; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra artists; and UNCSA faculty colleagues. He has been featured as soloist at the 20th Tokyo Summer Festival, the European Mozart Academy —performing throughout European capitals—the St. Petersburg Palaces XIII. International Music Festival (Russia) and the VI. Festival Internacional de Música Clásica Contemporánea de Lima (Perú). He has recorded for the Bridge, Kobaltone and Prion labels, receiving high critical acclaim by fellow clarinetists Richard Stoltzman and Charles Neidich for his solo recording “Julián Menéndez Rediscovered.”

Oskar Espina Ruiz devotes much of his time to musical research. His work on Spanish Post-Romantic composer Julián Menéndez brought him the first prize of the International Clarinet Association Research Competition; this led to his later writing an article for The Clarinet magazine and led to the acquisition of one of Menéndez’s clarinets by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for its Musical Instruments Galleries —currently on display at its permanent collection, including a photo and biography of Menéndez next to Benny Goodman’s.

Oskar Espina Ruiz is deeply involved with the music of our time and has premiered works written for him by Japanese composers Shin-Ichiro Ikebe and Yasuhide Ito, Chinese composers Changqun Ao and Chien-Yin Chen, Spanish composers Imanol Bageneta, Alba Torremocha and Carlos Villasol, French composer Pascal Gaigne, Puerto Rican composer Alfonso Fuentes, and American composers Michael Anderson, Tyson Davis, Lawrence Dillon, Cristina Spinei, and Dan Weymouth. He is a champion of new music, performing works for small ensembles by living composers Thomas Adès, Kalevi Aho, Eleanor Alberga, Viet Cuong, Christopher Cerrone, Valerie Coleman, Osvaldo Golijov, Carolina Heredia, Jennifer Higdon, James Lee III, Gabriela Lena Frank, Tania León, David Ludwig, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Jeff Scott, Bright Sheng, Isabel Urrutia, and many others.

In an effort to bring important works and revisions into the clarinet repertoire, in 2003 Oskar Espina Ruiz performed the South American premiere of the original Copland Clarinet Concerto, reconstructed from the manuscripts at the Library of Congress. His orchestrations and adaptations for clarinet include Ravel’s Sonate Posthume and works by Arriaga, Falla, Granados, Guridi, Isasi, Sarasate, and Turina, as well as other arrangements such as Debussy’s String Quartet, for woodwind quintet (with baritone sax instead of horn), and his orchestration of Menéndez’s Clarinet Concerto No. 2.

Born in Bilbao, Spain, his first musical training came at an early age, performing on Basque folk instruments, a fipple flute and drum, or “txistu” and “tamboril.” He later pursued the traditional conservatory training as a clarinetist and appeared with the Bilbao Symphony, as its youngest substitute, from age sixteen. He came to New York City in 1991 to further his studies in clarinet at Mannes School of Music, and later won the top clarinet prizes at the Artists International and Olga Koussevitzky international competitions. He was a member of the New York Youth Symphony, performing three concerts a year at Carnegie Hall.

Oskar Espina Ruiz holds an MFA from the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, and a DMA from Stony Brook University, where his major teachers were Charles Neidich and Ayako Oshima. While at the European Mozart Academy, flutist Aurèle Nicolet was one of his coaches and mentors. From 2009 to 2011 he was on the clarinet faculty at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, in San Juan, PR, and since 2011 is clarinet artist-faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC, currently serving as associate professor.