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Composer and clarinetist Don Byron was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. Though Byron's parents were not working musicians, they provided him with a wide base of musical experience through his father's bass playing in a calypso band, his mother's piano playing and early visits to jazz clubs and the New York Philharmonic. Though Byron originally studied classical clarinet, he became interested in neighborhood salsa bands in high school and began arranging and playing Latin music. During his studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, he took a strong turn toward jazz, and in 1980, while still an undergraduate, Byron embraced klezmer (the clarinet-led Jewish street music of Eastern Europe) and began playing in the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Internationally acknowledged as a major new force on clarinet in a variety of genres, Byron has won the Down Beat Critics Poll for Best Clarinet Player for three consecutive years as well as the 1993 Downbeat Readers Poll for Best Clarinet Player and 1992 Downbeat Critics Poll for Best New Jazz Artist. His Music for Six Musicians was released in 1995 by Nonesuch Records. Don Byron speaks:
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