Emory has a tradition of bringing world-class bassoonists to campus for a day of masterclasses, performances, and chamber music to enrich the musical life of the university and region. Guest artists have included: Sue Heineman (principal bassoon, National Symphony Orchestra), Richard Svoboda (principal bassoon, Boston Symphony Orchestra), Grammy Award winning bassoonist Frank Morelli (Yale/SUNY Stony Brook), Bill Ludwig (Indiana University), internationally acclaimed soloist Martin Kuuskmann, Kristin Wolfe-Jensen (University of Texas) and others.
Registration is offered at rate of $65. Registration may be performed online (click button below), or by mail/in person via personal check. Please use this form if registering by mail/in person.
Registration Open until September 30th. Walk-ins are accepted!
2023 Guest Artist: Gabriel Beavers
Professor of Bassoon, Frost School of Music, University of Miami
2023 Emory University Bassoon Faculty:
Prof. Anthony Georgeson, Emory University, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Assoc. Principal Bassoon)
Dr. Shelly Unger, Emory University
SUNDAY October 8, 2023
Event Schedule
9AM-9:15AM Welcome & Warm up, North Entrance Lobby
9:15AM-10:15AM Bassoon Choir Rehearsal, Tharp Rehearsal Hall
10:30AM Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra Bassoon Quartet
10:45AM Guest artist Gabriel Beavers plays
11:30AM-1PM Master Class I, Emerson Concert Hall
Guest artist Gabriel Beavers, University of Miami Frost School of Music
1PM-2:30PM Lunch/Miller Double Reed exhibits
(also simple reed adjustments/safe handling/clean cases)
2:30PM-4PM Master Class II, Emerson Recital Hall
Anthony Georgeson, Acting/Associate Principal Bassoon
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Emory University bassoon faculty
4PM-5PM All State Preparation or Developing Sight-Reading Skills & more.
5PM-5:30PM exhibits
5:30PM-6:30PM Bassoon Choir Rehearsal and photo, Emerson Concert Hall
6:30PM Bassoon Choir Mini-Concert, Emerson Recital Hall
EXHIBITS OPEN FOLLOWING THE MINI-CONCERT
Event sponsored by Miller Double Reed and The Emory Friends of Music. Special thanks to Publix.
*Schedule Subject to Change
*Exhibits will remain open following the concert until approximately 7:00PM
Bassoon Day will be held in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts on the Emory University Campus. The event will conclude around 7pm. Emory Bassoon Day offers special thanks to Emory Friends of Music as well as Miller Double Reed for their partial sponsorship of this event.
For More Information:
Dr. Shelly Unger, Artist Affiliate in Bassoon, Emory University
770-861-6062
2023 Bassoon Day Faculty
Gabriel Beavers
GABRIEL BEAVERS is the Associate Professor of Bassoon at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. He also performs with Nu-Deco Ensemble and is Principal Bassoon for both the Florida Grand Opera and Palm Beach Symphony. Beavers also serves on the faculty of both the Eastern Music Festival and Sewanee Summer Music Festival.
Prior to joining the faculty of the Frost School of Music, Beavers was on the faculty of the Louisiana State University School of Music and was Principal Bassoon with the Baton Rouge Symphony. Formerly a bassoon fellow with the New World Symphony, he was also Principal Bassoon with the Virginia Symphony and Acting Principal Bassoon with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Jacksonville Symphony. Beavers has also served as Second Bassoon in the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra in Durango, Colorado and began his orchestral career as Acting Second Bassoon with the Milwaukee Symphony. Other prior faculty appointments include the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Music and the Tennessee Valley Music Festival.
In addition to his orchestral and teaching activities, Beavers maintains an active schedule of solo and chamber performances. He has appeared as a soloist with The Symphonia (Boca Raton, FL), Virginia Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony, Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, Frost Wind Ensemble, Ensemble Ibis, Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble, Greater Miami Symphonic Band, LSU Symphonic Winds, Eastern Music Festival Young Artist Orchestra and the Louisiana Sinfonietta. He has given recitals throughout the United States and at international festivals in England, Brazil and Japan. In 2021 Beavers won the American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music for his published recording of Charles Norman Mason’s Swagger for Amplified Bassoon, Brass Quintet, and Two Percussion (available on Beauport Classical) and has also recorded two well-reviewed solo albums on Mark Records: A Quirky Dream and Gordon Jacob: Music for Bassoon. Beavers received his BM from Boston University School of the Arts and his MM from Southern Methodist University School of the Arts.
Dr. Shelly Unger
Founding director of Summer Bassoon Extravaganza, Shelly Unger is an active bassoonist and contrabassoonist as well as an artist affiliate bassoon instructor at Emory University. Dr. Unger has played throughout metro Atlanta, with the Augusta Symphony Orchestra, in regional orchestras throughout the Southeast, and as a substitute with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She has given numerous solo and collaborative recitals, including a performance of Bernard Garfield’s second quartet at the International Double Reed Society Conference shortly after its 2006 world premiere in Philadelphia. In 2004-05, she was visiting professor of bassoon at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she played with the Missouri Quintet and gave multiple solo performances. She maintains a large private studio and has taught for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Talent Development Program as well.
Dr. Unger’s students have won numerous awards and scholarships, including the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, the Atlanta Federation of Musicians Scholarship Competition and numerous awards in the Music Teachers National Association Competition. Each year more then a dozen of the bassoonists at All-State in Georgia are her private students. Her major teachers include: Sidney Rosenberg, Bernard Garfield, Ben Kamins, Eric Arbiter, and Carl Nitchie. She earned a BM from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, a MM from Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and a DMA from the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia. In addition she did post-graduate work at Temple University. She has performed in Seoul, Republic of South Korea, Lithuania, Taiwan and Israel. In 2006 she established Emory Bassoon Day, an annual event that continues a tradition of bringing world class bassoonists and some of the most sought after bassoon pedagogues to Atlanta. Guest artists have included: Sue Heineman, Richard Svoboda, Robert Williams, Marc Goldberg, Kristin Wofe Jensen, Jeff Keesecker, John Hunt and others. She also served as bassoon faculty and director of the IDRS Teen Camp: Double Reeds Rock! at its 2016 Conference
Anthony Georgeson
Anthony Georgeson joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as Associate Principal Bassoonist in the fall of 2017. Prior to that, he was principal bassoonist of The Florida Orchestra from 2007-17, a member of the New World Symphony and acting principal bassoonist of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. He has also performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, Sarasota Orchestra, Classical Tahoe, Mainly Mozart Music Festival, Strings Music Festival, and both as guest assistant principal and second bassoonist with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, Carnegie Hall, Blossom Music Festival, and throughout Europe. As part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2014 Brahms Cycle recording project he, as guest second bassoonist, recorded Brahms’s Symphonies 1-3 to DVD/BluRay from the BBC PROMS and the Musikverein in Vienna.
Georgeson earned his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, studying with Whitney Crockett, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison as a student of Kenneth Moses. He began studying the bassoon with Cynthia Cameron-Fix, has had further studies with John Clouser in performance and reed-making, and counts Bernard Garfield as a strong musical influence. Mr. Georgeson plays on pre-war Heckel Bassoon #7507 made in Biebrich (Wiesbaden), Germany in 1934.
Georgeson made his solo debut at the age of 17 performing Weber’s Bassoon Concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and has been a soloist with The Florida Orchestra, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the UW Symphony Orchestra, and the Concord Chamber Orchestra performing the bassoon concerti of Mozart, Zwilich, and Weber. With a strong family background and commitment to education, he also maintains a private teaching studio, and is on faculty as Artist Affiliate in Bassoon at Emory University.
Anthony Georgeson lives in Marietta, Georgia with his wife Erin (a public elementary school teacher), and their two daughters Lilianna and Isla. They enjoy exploring the outdoors, cooking, serving at Passion City Church, and spending time together with family and friends. He is also co-host of the podcast “Two Gomers Run for Their Lives” found on iTunes at twogomers.com.
This event is sponsored in part by Miller Double Reed and Emory Friends of Music.