James Zimmermann: From Child Broadway Actor to Clarinetist

0:00 – Intro: clarinetist James Zimmermann
0:58 – From violin and piano to the clarinet
2:49 – Show tunes, jazz, and studio session work
4:47 – A 9-year-old in The Will Rogers Follies
9:01 – Commercials, jingles, and losing Squints in The Sandlot
10:27 – Getting bullied as a child performer
12:53 – Rejection, hecklers, and learning from better players
15:49 – Competing for top orchestra jobs
19:04 – Feel over technique: Chet Baker and Bob Dylan
21:51 – Why blind auditions matter
25:15 – Blind auditions, police body cams, and DEI pushback
27:35 – How orchestras pursued diversity after 2013
29:52 – DEI training and walking on eggshells
32:16 – Black musicians and the classical pipeline
35:56 – Aging audiences and America's major orchestras
38:44 – A coming renaissance in the fine arts
40:26 – Trump's first election as a wake-up call
43:31 – Keeping the arts above politics
45:29 – How he was fired from the Nashville Symphony
49:05 – Winning the Knoxville Symphony audition and suing
51:38 – Trump, the Kennedy Center, and the National Symphony
54:39 – Where to follow James Zimmermann