NewBassoon Institute

Updated May 10, 2024

Applications for 2024’s program are now closed.

Leading American bassoon artists and teachers Rachael Elliott, Michael Harley, Lynn Hileman, and Jeffrey Lyman present a week-long workshop on contemporary bassoon literature, performance techniques, and pedagogy. Designed for college students and beyond, participants (Institute Fellows) work closely with the faculty in a variety of settings, including master classes, private lessons, and ensemble coachings. 

Throughout the Institute, emphasis will be placed on the significance of performing, promoting, and commissioning works by women, composers of color, and others who have traditionally been underrepresented in the field.

Highlights include collaborative faculty and fellow performances, experiential workshops, and recording opportunities.

Program Dates: June 2 – June 8, 2024

Application Deadline: March 1, 2024

See below for Tuition & Housing Information, as well as Application Requirements

2024 Theme – “Shocks & Aftershocks”

While the NewBassoon Institute has always focused on the most current repertoire and performance techniques, our 2024 installment looks back at some of the groundbreaking compositions, composers and performers who were trailblazers in our discipline, sparking the creativity of generations after them. Our 2024 program, themed “Shocks and Aftershocks: Those Who Put the ‘New’ in ‘NewBassoon“, will allow Institute Fellows to explore how pioneering works like Hans Erich Apostel’s Sonatine Op. 19/3 brought serial composition to solo bassoon repertoire.

Fellows will also study Karlheinz Stockhausen’s In Freundschaft, investigating how theatrical elements can enhance a listener’s experience of an unfamiliar compositional language. We’ll discuss how Asian born composers Tôn-Thất Tiết, Isang Yun and Yoshihisa Taïra added elements taken from Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese traditional music to Western compositional forms and created virtuoso showpieces that appear in international competitions. Finally, we’ll look at younger composers who followed these examples and created an ever growing body of works that incorporate techniques, styles and languages from around the world and that have enriched the expressive voice of the bassoon. Institute Fellows will be encouraged to prepare music from a list of older and newer works chosen by the faculty and are free to add their favorite new discoveries to the week’s recital programs. 

In what might be the start of an annual tradition with the NewBassoon Institute, plans are in the works to repeat our very popular performance of Brad Balliett’s Arboretum for multiple bassoons at Nichols Arboretum located Ann Arbor, MI, as well as a public performance of Michael Gordon’s meditative and captivating Rushes for seven bassoons.

NewBassoon Faculty

Jeffrey Lyman

Jeffrey Lyman

Professor of Music University of Michigan

Jeffrey Lyman has established himself as one of the premier performers, teachers, and historians of the bassoon in the U.S. He has been professor of bassoon at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) since 2006, and, prior to that, held positions at Arizona State University and Bowling Green State University. He has been a member of numerous orchestras across the country and has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Savannah Symphony, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, the Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Michigan Opera Theatre, to name a few.

Michael Harley

Michael Harley

University of South Carolina

Michael Harley enjoys a varied career as a teacher, performer, and music advocate. He teaches bassoon and chamber music at the University of South Carolina, where he also serves as Artistic Director of the award-winning Southern Exposure New Music Series. Harley’s playing been called “spectacular” (Washington Post) and “exquisite” (Columbus Dispatch). As a founding member of the contemporary music chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound, called “one of the most vital and original ensembles on the American musical scene” by the New York Times, Harley has worked with and premiered pieces by many of today’s most accomplished composers.

Rachael Elliott

Rachael Elliott

Longy School of Music of Bard College

Rachael Elliott is a bassoonist and passionate chamber musician specializing in contemporary music. She is a founding member of Clogs, Dark in the Song, EK Duo, Heliand, and Tuple Bassoon Duo. With Clogs, she has toured the USA, Canada, England, Europe and Australia, with performances at the Adelaide and Sydney Festivals; the Barbican Centre, London Jazz Festival and Brighton Festival in England; Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Knitting Factory and Joe’s Pub in NYC; and festivals including MusicNOW, Big Ears, and Halifax Jazz Festival.

Lynn Hileman

Lynn Hileman

Founder - Mental Musicianship

Bassoonist Lynn Hileman’s performances as a soloist and chamber musician have taken her around the world, with appearances in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia at venues including the Festival Internacional de Sopros (Rio de Janeiro), November Music and GLOW Festivals (the Netherlands), the Surround Festival (Brugge, Belgium), and the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival. A passionate advocate of contemporary and experimental music, she has given workshops on live looping techniques for bassoon and is a founding member of the contemporary bassoon collectives Tuple Bassoon Duo, Dark in the Song, and Rushes Ensemble.

Program Highlights

See below for a collection of program highlights from this summer’s NewBassoon Institute:

  • Performance master classes and private lessons by NewBassoon Institute Faculty Rachael Elliott, Michael Harley, Lynn Hileman, and Jeffrey Lyman
  • Performance of the work “Rushes,” by Michael Gordon
  • Performances of chamber music for multiple bassoons, prepared during the week
  • Institute showcase performance (all participants): Arboretum, by Brad Balliett
  • Workshops on contemporary bassoon literature, commissioning new works, and the pedagogy of extended techniques, with strategies for circular breathing, multiphonics, flutter tonguing, and microtones
  • “Get Out of Your Head and Into Flow” workshop
  • Bassoon recitals of contemporary works for bassoon
  • Faculty performance of solo and chamber works

Tuition & Housing Information

Tuition information for the 2024 NewBassoon Institute are listed below.

Program Tuition

WITH HOUSING + MEALS 

  • $1000 – Participation + Housing & Meals

IMPORTANT NOTE: Cost provides housing 3:00 P.M. Sunday, June 2, 2024, through 12:00 P.M. Saturday, June, 8, 2024. Meals provided will include breakfast, lunch, and dinner, beginning with dinner on Sunday, June 2, 2024, and ending with brunch on Saturday, June 8, 2024.

Housing / Meal Information

Participants will be housed in the following dormitory: Baits Housing

Participants will receive meals in the following dormitory: Bursley Dining Hall

Participant tuition will include all program activities for the duration of the week. Participants must pay for their own travel to and from Ann Arbor, MI, and should plan to arrive by June 2, 2024, and depart on June 8, 2024.

Application Requirements

Applications for 2024’s program are now closed.

For program consideration, all application and audition materials must be received by the application deadline of March 1, 2024. Applications may be accepted after the deadline if openings remain. Review, admission, and notification for late applications will be on a rolling basis.  To apply to the 2024 NewBassoon Institute you must complete the online application and pay the $50 non-refundable application fee.  The following items will be required for your 2024 NewBassoon Institute Application to be considered complete once applications are available:

    Application Requirements

    • Upload an updated resume or CV
    • *Upload files for 2 contrasting contemporary pieces or movements for unaccompanied bassoon solo, with or without electronics, and/or bassoon and piano

    *Specifics regarding the 2 contrasting pieces or movements are as follows:

    • Excerpts from longer works are fine, providing all music submitted totals a minimum of 6 (six) minutes
    • Included work(s) should have been written after 1970
    • Uploads can include both works in a single file/video, or include two separate files/videos
    • Preferred file format is MP4 or MOV

    For general questions about the program, please contact Jeffrey Lyman via email at [email protected].

    Contact Us

    Office of Engagement & Outreach
    University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance
    Stearns Building │ 2005 Baits Drive │ Ann Arbor, MI 48109
    Phone: (734) 936-2660
    Email: [email protected]