Dr. Natalie Groom is a clarinetist, D’Addario Woodwinds Educator Artist, and composer in Maryland where she is the clarinet professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Showcasing “rich, fluid, and colorful tone and skilled technical ability” (International Clarinet Association journal), a few of Natalie’s performance career highlights include being a concerto soloist with the White Mountain Symphony Orchestra and performing internationally in Colombia, Belgium, China, and Canada.
She has graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Strathmore, Symphony Space NYC, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Washington National Cathedral, New World Center, The Anthem, Phillips Collection, Goethe-Institut, and Austrian, Spanish, and Colombian Embassies. She has toured China with the Fred Fox Wind Quintet and performed with the Annapolis Symphony, Annapolis Opera, Richmond Symphony, Virginia Opera, Great Falls Philharmonic, Washington Metropolitan Gamer Symphony Orchestra, Regenerate Orchestra, and Tucson Symphony.
Natalie particularly loves where music intersects advocacy. In 2018, Natalie and soprano Jennifer Piazza-Pick founded Whistling Hens® to perform and commission music by women composers and create a financially and artistically equitable future for women in music. To date, the Hens have released two albums, premiered 41 pieces, inspired 26 dedicated works, and commissioned 16 compositions. Additionally, as founder of Three Reeds and a Horn trio, Natalie promotes flex music in her Flexing the Canon project. With 12 commissions to date, she is building an overlooked body of repertoire, flex chamber trios, to ensure music is accessible to student musicians.
With Whistling Hens, Natalie has been featured in Classical Singer magazine (2023) and awarded Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Grant (2022) and Residency Partnership Grant (2020), the Iranian Female Composers Association’s Inaugural Award (2023), and the International Alliance for Women in Music Programming Award (2023). Educators at heart, Whistling Hens has been a guest ensemble for the Washington National Opera Institute and the Ensemble in Residence for Darkwater Women in Music Festival (2021), Smith College (2023), Metropolitan State University of Denver (2024), Towson University (2025), and Women Composers Festival of Hartford (2026).
Natalie has been published numerous times in the International Clarinet Association journal, and she is co-inventor of the new single reed micrometer, Reed Mapper®, on which she wrote her dissertation. A passionate educator, she gives masterclasses and presentations across the country, and in 2024, she was recognized for her inventive and explorative teaching with three Towson University Scholarship of Teaching and Learning grants focused on the use of innovative classroom technologies and developing Open Educational Resources (OER) materials.
As a composer, Natalie’s music has been performed at the College Music Society international conference in Medellín, Colombia, American Single Reed Summit, International Clarinet Association Conference, District New Music Coalition Conference, Mississippi Music by Women Festival, The Anthem, Smithsonian American History Museum, and numerous universities. In 2019, two of her arrangements were premiered opening for the National Symphony Orchestra, and in 2022 two of her arrangements for rapper and wind orchestra were premiered by the University of Maryland, College Park Wind Orchestra. April 22nd for solo clarinet, was featured in the International Clarinet Association Journal, and she’s currently working on three books of clarinet etudes.
Natalie is engaged in the music industry as a voting member of the Recording Academy. Prior to this role, she was the Manager of Advancement Operations and Analytics at D.C. arts non profit Washington Performing Arts. She was also an audio engineer, producer, and manager for virtual and live classical music at Arts Laureate, and she was an Artist in Residence at Collington Retirement Community where she responded to the pandemic with 45 virtual events that brought essential programming to isolated seniors. Learn more at www.nataliegroom.com.
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Contact
Email: ngroom@umbc.edu
Teaching
Affiliate Artist
Clarinet
Education
B.M. Kent State University