Description
ELEMENTS
Recorded by Susan Nelson and friends on MSR Classics
World Premiere Recordings of winning works from the 2012 and 2014 Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition
Features Jenni Brandon’s work Colored Stones for solo bassoon, available through Imagine Music
The Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition (BCMCC) was founded in 2009 by Dr. Paula Brusky, and welcomed a new Director in 2013, Dr. Susan Nelson. The BCMCC encourages new music for the bassoon and offers opportunities to composers by holding a competition every other year for new compositions featuring the bassoon in a chamber music setting. The competition’s panel of judges, comprised of professional bassoonists, provides feedback to each participating composer. The BCMCC works with the winning composers to secure a music publisher, arrange for a premiere and create a professional recording of the winning pieces. Two chamber music competitions have been held thus far: 2010 and 2012. In 2014, the BCMCC partnered with the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition (MQVC), a performance competition for young women bassoonists of the Americas. A new competition was held in this year for a solo work by a female composer to be used in the 2016 MQVC competition. [ www.bassooncomp.org ]
Judges [2012 BCMCC Chamber Works]: Carolyn Beck, Michael Burns, Jefferson Campbell, Cynthia Cioffari, Monica Ellis, Judith Farmer, Lynn Hileman, Jeffrey McCray, Kathleen McLean, Maya Stone
Judges [2014 BCMCC Solo Work]: Gina Cuffari, Laura Koepke, Nicolasa Kuster, Kathleen Reynolds, Keith Sweger, Eric Van der Veer Varner
Susan Nelson enjoys an active career as a performer, teacher and clinician. An advocate for new music as well as chamber music for the bassoon, Dr. Nelson is the director of the non-profit organization Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition (BCMCC). In summer, she teaches at the Bocal Majority Bassoon Camp and Bowling Green State University’s Double Reed Camp. Nelson has performed with the annual Classical Music Festival in Austria, Michigan Opera Theater, and the symphony orchestras of Shreveport, Toledo, Oklahoma City, Ann Arbor and Helena, Montana. She taught at Adrian College in Michigan and Heidelberg College in Ohio, and was a member of the Heidelberg faculty wind quintet. In Montana, she held the position of principal bassoon in the Great Falls Symphony and was a member of the Chinook Winds quintet. A graduate of the University of Kansas, University of Oklahoma and University of Michigan, Nelson is currently Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Bowling Green State University. [ www.susannelsonmac.com ]
DAVID ANGELO CIANCAGLINI (b.1983)
SEIKILOS QUARTET for Oboe, Bassoon, Marimba and Piano (2012)
Nermis Mieses oboe
Susan Nelson bassoon
Jeffrey Barudin marimba
Solungga Fang-Tzu Liu piano
JENNI BRANDON (b.1977)
COLORED STONES for Solo Bassoon (2014)
Smoky Quartz
Lapis Lazuli
Tiger’s Eye
Susan Nelson bassoon
DEVIN FARNEY (b.1983)
FIRE AND ICE for Soprano, Bassoon and Piano (2012)
Jennifer Goode Cooper soprano
Susan Nelson bassoon
Solungga Fang-Tzu Liu piano
GREG STEINKE (b.1942)
SUSPENDED for Bassoon and Strings (2005)
Susan Nelson bassoon
Stephen Miahky violin
Christina McGann violin
Matthew Daline viola
Jacqueline Black cello
