“Somewhere on the scale of the unattainable, just short of the perfect reed and finding a unicorn in the wild is the perfect clarinet mouthpiece. Of course, none of these actually exist, but we can try to get as close as possible to perfect clarinet playing by practicing and finding equipment that helps make the hard work pay off! There are some days when playing the clarinet is easier than others and we sound closer to “ideal.” I feel fortunate that recently that after many years of effort and searching I am having more days of these days than ever. I attribute much of this to the new Signature mouthpiece designed by Richard Hawkins and produced by Backun. The result of many years of collaborative work, I was impressed by the dedication, artistry and care that Richard gave to this project and the investment made by Backun in state-of-the-art equipment and exacting production standards to produce a new mouthpiece designed from high quality hard rubber. I am enjoying the most consistent period of my playing career in terms of tone production, intonation, and articulation thanks to these new mouthpieces.”

– David Shifrin

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