1:30pm Upstanders Bassoon Ensemble performance in the Lobby

2:00pm Recital featuring performers: Cassandra Bendickson, Andrew Burn, Andrea Clark, Shuo Li, Allison Nicotera, Mariah Stadel, Mackie Thomas, Marta Troiki, Martin J. Van Klompengberg, Kayla Vanderborg, Sarah Wildey

Performance Class with Amy Pollard

A workshop on Soundpainting, a form of live-composing that enables classical artists to explore improvisation and interdisciplinary collaboration. Performers across music, dance, and theater work together to create the performance and composition in real time. In this workshop we would go over the basic signs and give a short performance at the end of the session. It would be an excellent way for participants of every skill level to play together and collaborate meaningfully. There are no mistakes in Soundpainting so performers of all levels can practice letting go of fear and anxiety, and focus on what they want to express. It’s a fun and immediately accessible way to begin improvising! Here is a video of a performance with all classical players. I teach a Soundpainting course and ensemble at Oberlin and the Round Top music festival, and it has been an incredible tool for opening up artists of all backgrounds.

7pm performance by the University of South Carolina Bassoon Studio in Watson Lobby

7:30 Recital featuring performers: Jasmin Arakawa, Michael Burns, Telma Diaz, Francisco Joubert Bernard, Carlos Manuel López Soria, Shannon Lowe, Kathleen McLean, Leigh Muñoz, Giovanni A. Perez, Ivy Ringel, Angela Santiago, Cornelia Sommer

Featuring performance by the Louisiana State University Bassoon Studio

A discussion of Dr. Ariel Detwiler's 2023 DMA thesis of the same title, which addresses issues of access including finances, distance, and knowledge, which directly effects today's band directors' ability to recruit, retain, and nurture their bassoonists. What more can we do to help band directors and their bassoonists feel supported in their knowledge of the bassoon, and how do we create opportunities to eliminate these barriers as we are able in the future?

Have you ever wanted to create engaging and creative videos to share on the internet but didn't know where to start? Here is your chance to get started with as little as just your phone. Join Francisco Joubert Bernard, better known as VG Bassoonist on social media, as he guides you through the essentials of producing fun and engaging content for social media platforms. From grasping the basics of audio recording, overdubbing, and video editing to crafting fun posts that highlight your musical talents, this workshop offers step-by-step tutorials, insider tips, material needs, and creative inspiration regardless of your budget. Whether you're just starting out or looking to learn some of the secrets behind VG Bassoonist's videos, you'll find everything you need to bring your artistic vision to life and share it with the world. Let’s make some AV magic together! Yeah, I am not kidding. Bring your bassoon as we may want you on VG Bassoonist's next video!

Musical ideas frequently encompass aspects that are philanthropic and commercial in nature. Explore the unique challenges of choosing between business and nonprofit models. Discover actionable strategies to navigate the legal structure dilemma and explore key considerations, benefits, and implications for both options. Learn how to assess your goals, protect your interests, and make informed decisions. Gain clarity on funding opportunities, tax implications, and organizational frameworks that align with your musical aspirations. Join us for a concise and dynamic session packed with practical insights, empowering you to strike the right chord for your musical venture and shape your career with confidence! about a 25-30 minutes session

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Humanity has never faced anything like this: crucial systems must be transformed quickly and comprehensively; practices and attitudes need to shift in a hurry. We often hear about music as a force for transformation; how can we apply that musical force to this massive set of challenges? How can our concerts, teaching, ensembles, and organizations assist the many kinds of work that need doing? Through small group discussion and large-group idea sharing, we will brainstorm ways to harness music's power for the preservation and renewal of our habitat.

Beyond the canon: Music featuring contemporary techniques and/or jazz/popular elements. Performance Class with Michael Burns

A performance class that focuses on works (selected by the participants) that incorporate either contemporary techniques (e.g. extended techniques such as multiphonics, bisbigliando, glissandi as well as aleatoric, non-traditional notation, etc.) and/or works that include elements of or are inflected by jazz or popular music. With backgrounds as both a composer and a former jazz/rock drummer I have insights and approaches that may prove useful in these genres.

To work on repertoire from the high baroque (as it is bassoon, not dulcian, repertoire) and help introduce the participants to preluding, bridging movements via an adagio and/or phrygian cadence, as well as explain where to incorporate a cadenza and how to compose in keeping with original examples and instructions. As source material, I would base my work on Hotteterre’s “L’Art de préluder, Op.7” (1719), Johann Joachim Quantz’s “Versuch” (1752), Francesco Geminiani’s “Art of Playing the Violin, Op. 9” (1751), as well as extant examples of transcribed improvisations.

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Bring your lunch and discuss some of the challenges of motherhood while maintaining a career in music.

Performance Class with Sue Heineman

This panel will discuss the components involved in commissioning a new piece from the professional performer, composer, and student perspectives. Elements to be covered will be methods of commission, finances, contracting, and more. Whether you have commissioned a piece before or are looking to try for the first time, this discussion will have something of interest for you!

Come see the semi-finalists of the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition

Join Brigit Fitzgerald Pacher for practical tips for how to best document your sound in a digital format. Whether you are preparing prescreening videos or would like to make an Instagram reel with awesome audio, this class will help make your recordings memorable for all the right reasons.

7pm performance by the Bassoon Club at Penn State in Watson Lobby

7:30pm Recital featuring performers: Rick Barrantes Agüero, Nanci Belmont, Carla Burns, Corinne Cassini, Glenn Einschlag, C.J. Everett, Judith Farmer, Amanda Harberg, Michael Harley, Stephanie Patterson, William Short, Anthony Taylor, David Wells

Featuring performance by Bowling Green State Bassoon Studio

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, over 1 million Ukrainians have resettled in Poland. Outside of Kraków, there is a community of Ukrainian refugee women, elderly individuals, and children who are adjusting to life in a shelter called Palace Paszkówka. This year, I was privileged to facilitate arts- and music-based group therapy sessions with the women at Paszkówka, alongside other artists from Ukraine and USA. In this short presentation, I will share about that experience, introduce the culturally responsive and trauma-informed strategies that we utilized, and discuss the challenges of arts-based group work with participants experiencing the ongoing effects of war. As bassoonists, we will inevitably be called participate in some type of community engagement during our careers. When we enter community engagement situations, it is crucial that we utilize culturally responsive and trauma-informed strategies for the sake of the individuals and groups we create with. It is my goal that this workshop will offer some examples of culturally responsive and trauma-informed strategies that bassoonists might use, while demonstrating how our bassoon playing can enable us to make meaningful connections with communities whose life experiences are different than our own.

Moderator: Lia Uribe (University of Arkansas, RefleXions Music Series) will moderate a panel on creative justice and equitable distribution of resources in cultural institutions through just processes for artists and audiences. In the panel we’ll be using the frame of creative justice, to examine how music can be used to challenge power structures while empowering diverse audiences and philanthropy, and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of the creative process, from funding and production to distribution and consumption. This conversation will offer opportunities to improve the justice literacies of our MQVC community by connecting it with agents who sharpen their skills at producing equitable and just outcomes on regular basis. We will explore the intricate relationship between creative justice and gender inclusion within the classical music domain. Classical music, often regarded as a bastion of tradition, has long grappled with issues of gender disparity, limiting opportunities for female composers, conductors, instrumentalists, educators, administrators, and more. Last, through an interdisciplinary lens, we will examine a theoretical frame for creative justice, and initiatives and movements that have emerged to challenge traditional norms and foster greater gender diversity within the field. These endeavors encompass educational reforms, advocacy for gender-sensitive programming, and the amplification of underrepresented voices, among other measures.

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Performance Class with Cornelia Sommer

This performance class will focus on how to be a great section player in the orchestra. The class will help players build skills specific to orchestral bassoon playing, based on my experience as Second Bassoon in the Detroit Symphony as well as my freelance work in the Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, and Oregon Symphonies. While bassoonists often have ample instruction on audition preparation, it is much more difficult to get feedback on actually playing in the orchestra. This class aims to address that gap and help prepare bassoonists for freelance work, section playing rounds in auditions, and the tenure process after securing a position. I will distribute a handout that summarizes my central tenets of section playing; the handout will outline the skills needed for Principal vs. Second playing and guidelines on vibrato use, dynamic balance, fingering choices, and musical leadership. Each of these ideas will be workshopped by the class performers in important orchestral excerpts for two (or more) bassoons. Excerpts will include: Bartók Concerto for Orchestra, Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, Strauss Don Quixote, Bonds Montgomery Variations, Brahms Violin Concerto, Sibelius 2, and Shostakovich 10 (if there is a contra player in the mix). I would primarily encourage pre-professional players for this class, but I am also happy to hear more or less experienced bassoonists. Rehearsal prior to the class with your excerpt partner(s) is encouraged but not required.

Bring your bassoon for a fun bassoon band sight reading session! Open to all ages and levels.

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12:30pm performance by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Bassoon Studio in the lobby

1:00 pm Recital featuring performers: Maribel Alonso, Cassandra Bendickson, Richard Brasseale, Elizabeth Crawford, C.J. Everett, Margaret Fay, Debby Grove, John Grove, Haley Houk, Yoon Joo Hwang, Eleni Katz, Jessica Kunttu, Stephanie Patterson, Rémy Taghavi, Robyn Watson

The musical excerpts used in orchestral auditions in the United States present an extremely limited scope of style, period, and representation. As a result, they are unnecessarily exclusive and do not address several fundamental skills that are necessary for success in the profession. For the past several years, I have been working to integrate new excerpts into audition lists that I can control (mainly university placement auditions and festival audition lists). My goal in doing so has been to represent a broader range of styles, techniques, time periods, and composers’ identities. In the process, I’ve successfully used a number of excerpts (including works by Tania Leon, Hilda Paredes, Margaret Bonds, and Clarice Assad, among others) that I believe are extremely effective in audition settings. This presentation and workshop will identify a number of excerpts in this category, give them musical, stylistic, and historical context, and feature performances by symposium participants.

Performance Class with Nicolasa Kuster

The Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet invites you to a unique performance class that delves into the multifaceted world of being a contemporary bassoon ensemble. This class will provide an in-depth exploration of our musical arrangements, the dynamics of collaboration, and how we sustain creativity and mutual support in the face of challenges.

7:00pm in the Lobby performance by the University of Central Florida

7:30pm Recital featuring performers: Sue Barber, Dana Brink, Gina Cuffari, C.J. Everett, Allison Gagnon, Sue Heineman, Kristin Jensen, Laura Najarian, Marcelo Padilla, Aaron Pergram, Diane Phoenix-Neal, Ben Roidl-Ward, Christin Schillinger, Tom Schneider, Andy Sledge

Performance by the Oakland University Bassoon Quartet

Share personal stories and discuss diverse careers in and beyond the two paths of performance and teaching lead by Elizabeth Crawford in conjunction with Cassandra Bendickson, Rachel Frederiksen, and Haley Houk. We will explore topics specific to the challenges faced by women, the power of community, and developing skills not often taught or discussed in formal musical training. A presentation applicable to professional musicians at every point in their career. Topics discussed will include: Interpersonal dynamics in professional environments Developing and investing in your communities Effective communication and meaningful collaborations Education at the right time for the right reasons

The differences between shapers and their effects

Performance Class with Juan de Gomar

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I will discuss research and personal philosophy on effective methods for one on one music teaching. I will have a powerpoint, but will also call on the expertise of seasoned teachers in attendance. We will explore the minute to minute decisions a private instructor makes regarding what aspects of music-making to address, when to compliment a student, and when to challenge them to reach for more refined artistry and instrumental control.

Elizabeth Crawford, Allison Gagnon, Cody Hunter, Brigit Fitzgerald Pacher, Peter Kolkay, Javier Rodriguez

Performance Class with Marcello Padilla

Performance Class with Francisco Joubert

Whether the participant is a beginner or aspiring professional I would like to help them get to the "why" they are performing what they are performing and how to make it sound like it. Even if playing bassoon excerpts, since they are so subjective, I would like the participants to find and be confident of the choices they make when performing for a panel.

Come see the finalists of the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition

Free for all registered guests of Meg Quigley. Come celebrate the Meg Quigley Semi-Finalists and events of the last week. Featuring performances by: University of North Carolina School of the Arts Bassoon Studio, and Blazing Bassoons - Appalachian State and Ensamble de Fagot FaM - UNAM.