susan nelson - director

Susan Nelson is the Associate Professor of Bassoon and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), Ohio, and enjoys an active career as a performer, teacher, and clinician. Dr. Nelson is an advocate for new music as well as chamber music for the bassoon. She is the Director of the non-profit organization Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition (BCMCC) and founding member of Across the Grain (bassoon/percussion duo). She has also taught bassoon and theory at Stephen F. Austin State University and played with the Stone Fort Wind Quintet in Nacogdoches, Texas. In the summer Dr. Nelson teaches at various camps, including BGSU’s Double Reed Camp and The Renova Festival. She has performed with the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria, Michigan Opera Theatre, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Symphony Orchestra, and Helena Symphony, among others. She has also given solo performances at the International Double Reed Society Conferences in Redlands (CA), Oxford (OH), New York, Appleton (WI), and Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Nelson taught at both Adrian (MI) and Heidelberg (OH) Colleges and was a member of the Heidelberg faculty wind quintet. She also held the position of principal bassoon in the Great Falls Symphony and was a member of the Chinook Winds quintet in Great Falls, Montana. She can be heard on Elements, a CD release from the BCMCC through the MSR Classics label, which features the winning works from the 2012 and 2014 BCMCC competitions. Dr. Nelson is a graduate of the University of Kansas, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Michigan. Her primary teachers include Jeffrey Lyman, Carl Rath, and Alan Hawkins, and she is a Fox artist.

Jenni brandon - board Member

Jenni Brandon is a composer and conductor, creating music in collaboration with other musicians and artists. She has written over 50 works, telling stories through memorable musical lines influenced by nature and poetry. Commissioned to write music from solo to orchestral works, her music appears on over 20 albums. Her music has been awarded the Sorel Medallion, American Prize, Paderewski Cycle, Women Composers Festival of Hartford International Competition, and Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition among others. Her works are published and distributed by Boosey & Hawkes, Santa Barbara Music, Graphite, TrevCo, Imagine, J.W. Pepper, June Emerson, and her own publishing company Jenni Brandon Music. As a conductor she conducted her one‐act opera 3 PADEREWSKIS in the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center in 2019. She also presents workshops on collaboration and the business of music, striving to create a supportive environment where collaboration leads to an exploration of ideas.

christopher dietz - board member

Christopher Dietz holds a Ph.D. in composition and theory from the University of Michigan as well as degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Wisconsin. He was previously a faculty member at the Oberlin Conservatory and Hillsdale College. He composes music inspired by a wide variety of sources, both real and conceptual. Poetry, sound as sculpture and color, how toddlers play, deep time and the cosmos, rhythm as geometry, religion and politics, animal behavior, and the music of others are a few of the subjects that have informed his musical imagination. A similarly diverse approach to the creation of each new piece has resulted in a collection of works distinct in their surface features yet bound together by a common vitality, nuanced palette, and a commitment to engaging with others.

In recent years, Christopher’s works have been premiered in London, Auvillar (France), Montreal, Ottawa, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Houston, Phoenix and Ann Arbor, among others. His music has been performed by numerous contemporary ensembles including Alarm Will Sound, Decoda, The Orchestra of the League of Composers, Ogni Suono, The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, The East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, The Chicago Ensemble, Trio Kavak, Palomar, TACTUS Ensemble, Dark in the Song, The Color Field Ensemble, as well as traditional ensembles such as L’Orchestre de la Francophonie, The San Jose Chamber Orchestra, The Beau Soir Trio, The Orange County Symphony, The Toledo Symphony, the University of Michigan Symphonic Band and additional university ensembles across the United States. Upcoming collaborators include the Deviant Septet and pianist Solungga Liu. His work has been featured at new music festivals such as soundSCAPE (Italy), The Etchings Festival of Contemporary Music (France), The Queens New Music Festival, Florida State's Biennial Festival, Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, Tutti Festival of New Music, MusicX Festival and the New Music Festival at Bowling Green State University.

Residencies at Copland House, Canada’s Banff Centre and The Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France) have been important milestones in the development of Christopher's compositional voice. Recognition of his work has come from honors and awards including ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, The Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions and Composer Institute, The Riverside Symphony Composer Reading Project (NYC), The Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music, Random Access Music, The Utah Arts Festival’s Orchestral Commission Prize as well as several academic awards, grants and scholarships. Christopher's music has been released on New Focus, Navona and Cambria Records.

amber ferenz - board member

Amber Ferenz is a nonbinary bassoonist and award-winning composer. Inspired deeply by the beauty, magic and mystery of the natural world, they write pieces that weave together melodies and healing songs given by Nature with their own musical ideas.

Their most recent compositions include “Kachina” for bassoon and orchestra, which is slated for its World Premiere performance with the Western Piedmont Symphony in Hickory, NC on May 16, 2024, with the composer as the featured soloist.

Other recent works are “Tales From the Grove” and “Unfinished Conversations” for bassoon and piano, “Wood, Water, and Roses: Women’s Medicine for Difficult Times” and “Yellow Poplar with Birdsong” for solo bassoon, and “Tall Tales” for bassoon quartet. “These Four Directions” for wind quartet was an official selection for performance at the 2022 Music By Women Festival in Columbus, Mississippi. It was commissioned by Winston-Salem based Elektra Winds in 2021, and is their first piece for wind quartet. In early 2023, “These Four Directions” was chosen by the Silent Voices Festival in Bimidji, Minnesota as a winning selection. TrevCo Music publishes their entire catalogue.

Amber teaches bassoon at Gardner-Webb University, is a founding member of Elektra Winds and Charlotte-based Queen City Winds, and is second bassoonist with the Asheville Symphony. They are also the third/contra bassoonist for the Greensboro Symphony, a frequent sub with the Charlotte Symphony, and has served as the Camp Coordinator for the Glickman-Popkin Bassoon Camp since 2007. In January of 2023, Amber took part in a bassoonist/composer discussion panel held as part of the offerings of the Meg Quigley Symposium.

albie micklich - board member

Albie Micklich is Professor of Bassoon at Arizona State University. Prior to this appointment, he served on the faculties of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, University of Missouri-Columbia, Michigan State University, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He holds degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Michigan State University, and The Juilliard School.

As a dedicated pedagogue, he is passionate about his students’ musical and professional career success. His bassoon students have gone on to win orchestral positions throughout the United States, Europe, and New Zealand; pursue advanced degrees at prestigious conservatories and universities; teach at universities and public schools; and have won the prestigious Fulbright Award and the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst Award.

His solo CD, Cantando, was released in 2017 on Soundset Records. Micklich published a number of popular arrangements with TrevCo Music Publishing and Potenza Music including: Felix Mendelssohn Concertpiece in F Minor, Op. 113 for oboe, bassoon, and piano; Robert Schumann Six Studies in Canonic Form, Op. 56 for oboe, bassoon, and piano; Francisco Tárrega Lágrima, Maria, and Recuerdos del Alhambra for two bassoons; Igor Stravinsky Suite for Woodwind Sextet (from Suites 1 & 2 for Small Orchestra); Antonio Vivaldi Sposa son Disprezzata for bassoon and piano; Max Bruch Four Pieces for clarinet, bassoon, and piano; and has more arrangements to be published in 2018 and 2019.

An active member in the International Double Reed Society (IDRS), Micklich, along with Professor Martin Schuring, was the host of the 2011 IDRS conference at ASU. Other IDRS conference performances and masterclasses include: Tokyo, Japan; New York City; Appleton, WS; Redlands, CA; Miami University, Oxford, OH; Birmingham Conservatoire, England; Provo, UT; Ball State University; Melbourne, Australia; University of North Carolina-Greensboro; and University of West Virginia.

christin schillinger - board member

Hailed as a “soloist, teacher, and force of nature” by The Double Reed (Journal of the International Double Reed Society), bassoonist Christin Schillinger (she/hers) specializes in the accessibility of the avant-garde, aiming to broaden the audience for both new music and bassoon. American Record Guide refers to her playing as “full of life and inspiration.” “She plays [bassoon] with total mastery.” (Fanfare)

Schillinger works closely with living composers to dismantle the traditional canon and expand repertoire for bassoon. Her newest solo album, Bassoon Unbounded (2018), highlights works from the 21st Century written in her dedication. Her prior solo albums, Bassoon Transcended (2013) and Bassoon Surrounded (2009), produced for MSR Classics by Swineshead Productions, include world-premiere recordings of new works. Collaborative composers remark on her “natural interpretation” and “perfect musical choices.”

To facilitate the demands of 21st-century compositions, Schillinger researches reed-making consistency. Her 2016 book, Bassoon Reed Making (Indiana University Press) details current and historic trends in this field. Schillinger’s groundbreaking research extends to guest lectures and residencies throughout the United States and Europe.

Schillinger is an active advocate for womxn in the Art Music Industry, re-imagining a more inclusive, accessible, and inviting performance paradigm. She is the creator of fEMPOWER social networking platform for bassoonists who identify as womxn. This private site promotes womxn bassoonists and offers a safe, friendly place to share and discuss topics relevant to their community. A dynamic performer, she works closely with living composers to dismantle the traditional canon and make historically marginalized voices an accessible, included, and critical component of the repertoire. Most notably, her work with womxn composers Jenni Brandon and Adrienne Albert has helped redefine the instrument’s standard repertory.

Schillinger is currently on the faculties of Ithaca College and Cornell University in New York. Previously, she has held positions with Miami University, the University of Nevada, and various orchestras throughout the west. Schillinger received her degrees from Northwestern, Michigan State, and Arizona State Universities.

jaquain sloan - board member

No stranger to low notes, bassoonist/contrabassoonist Jaquain Sloan enjoys making the ground rumble when in performance. He has performed with a number of orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, 2018 Video Game Award Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Southwest Symphony, Debut Symphony, and the American Youth Symphony. He can be heard playing with orchestras on Naxos under the batons of Marin Alsop and Carl St. Clair.

Jaquain began his musical studies at age twelve as a percussionist when he participated in the middle school band. He stumbled upon the bassoon at age 15 and was self-taught until transferring to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for his senior year. There he received his HS diploma studying under the supervision of Saxton Rose. Now his ease over the bassoon has earned him recognition from organizations such as the Aspen Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, and most recently with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra where he is an African-American Orchestra Fellow.

A native of North Carolina, Jaquain holds a BM in Bassoon Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where he studied with Phillip Kolker, and a MM and a Performers Certificate from the University of Southern California as a student of Shawn Mouser.

When his instrument is not in hand, Jaquain can be found making reeds, dancing around his house, or working on his singing career. He can be heard raising a voice for social justice with Grammy nominated choral ensemble Tonality, or with The L.A Choral Lab both based in Los Angeles, CA.

Paula brusky - founder

Paula Brusky founded the Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition, Inc. (BCMCC) in 2009. Brusky was the first candidate awarded a PhD in Performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music after winning the Endeavor International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (the largest merit scholarship available to international students in Australia). Brusky's dissertation included the most comprehensive study to date of injuries in bassoon players and her subsequent research into injury prevention for musicians has made her a sought after guest lecturer. Some of the places she has presented include the International Double Reed Society 2010 conference, the Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Michigan, Lawrence University, and Eastern Kentucky University. In addition to research, while in Australia Brusky performed extensively. Her first CD, featuring winning works from the 2010 BCMCC, was released on MSR Classics in May 2011. Previously Brusky received a Master of Music from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Music, cum laude, from Northwestern University.