About
Lynne Snyder works at Caltech as Music Staff, is the founder and director of the Los Angeles Youth Clarinet Ensemble, and serves as the California State Chair for the International Clarinet Association. She is currently finishing her DMA at the USC Thornton School of Music with emphasis in Music Teaching and Learning, Theory and Analysis, Conducting, and Clarinet Performance. She earned her Master of Music from USC and graduated summa cum laude in Clarinet Performance from Colorado State University. She has studied with acclaimed clarinetists Yehuda Gilad, David Howard, and David Breeden and with scholarly titans Beatriz Ilari, Rotem Gilbert, Chris Rozé, Candice Mattio, and Peter Webster.
Scholarly Work and Academic Instruction
Lynne has served as Theory Lecturer for music majors at Cal Lutheran, and as Lead Teaching Assistant at USC where she has worked on a wide range of courses including Music, Mind, and Brain; Music, Nation, and Turmoil; and Reflections of American Diversity: the Broadway Musicals.
Lynne has published in College Music Symposium on non-music majors’ engagement with music, in California Music Teacher Journal on the value of exploratory musical learning, and on the role of AI in shaping Gen Z’s listening habits with co-author Beatriz Ilari in The Conversation. She has also presented on Resilience and Burnout at International Clarinet Association and CASMEC conferences.
While her DMA research delves into music preferences, technology, and social listening for young people, Lynne has conducted past research studies on creativity, diversity in college music teaching, and on DEIA leadership in schools of music.
She has lectured Music Mind and Brain lab sections at USC on topics such as music and community, music and sex appeal, relationships between music and language, music and emotions, and music preferences. She has also guest lectured on a wide variety of topics including music fundamentals, music in political campaigns, and creativity in music.
Performance and Performance Instruction
Lynne currently works at Caltech as the Clarinet/Woodwinds Coach and Clarinet Choir Director. She has also worked as Wind Ensemble director at Cal Lutheran and as woodwind coach for the USC Trojan Concert and Marching Band – “The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe, Ever.”
As a member of the Los Angeles Clarinet Choir, Lynne has performed at International ClarinetFest four times, including in a world premiere at the 2019 Fest. She has also been a performer and featured artist with many orchestras, wind ensembles, chamber groups, and ballet and opera companies in Colorado and California.
Lynne runs a thriving private studio of clarinet, saxophone, and flute students, and has coached woodwinds in public school districts across LA County including Arcadia Unified’s award winning music program. She has also been an invited specialist coach with the Music Teacher's Association of California Chamber Festival Workshop, Tournament of Roses Honor Band, the Harmony Project, UC Riverside, Concordia University Clarinet Day, CSUN Youth Symphony and many other acclaimed music programs.
With various performing groups, Lynne has toured in Europe and China and performed Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, Ambassador Auditorium, and Burbank Starlight Bowl. Lynne has recorded at East West Studios and can be heard on many live-recordings from Peter and the Wolf to Martin Ellerby's Clarinet Concerto to the eclectic music of woodwind trio We3LA.
Community
A strong believer in the transformative power of community music, Lynne has devoted her energy to creating and enhancing community music experiences for musicians and audiences alike.
Lynne is co-founder and Executive Director of Musica West, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit committed to fostering new musical understandings and experiences, sharing emergent voices, and connecting people to music and ideas. As director of the Los Angeles Youth Clarinet Ensemble (a project of Musica West), Lynne shares the enormous joy of clarinet choir music with students from communities across Los Angeles county and inspires these young musicians to imagine a future for themselves that includes music.
Lynne is also program coordinator for the Caltech Wind Choirs Community Outreach Concerts where she oversees annual outreach concerts in local libraries featuring chamber wind choirs based in the Caltech community.
Performing in community-affirming spaces like libraries and museums and for philanthropic events, Lynne is invested in redefining what it means to be musically educated and who has access to that education. Lynne has performed at the Norton Simon Museum in celebration of Japanese art and music, for Family Promise and Empty Bowls supporting people who are experiencing homelessness and hunger, and Art Night Pasadena, drawing attention to the artistic voices of our region.