Appointed principal bassoon in 1996 by then-music
director Daniel Barenboim, bassoonist-author David McGill began his tenure with
the Chicago Symphony in 1997. He came to Chicago from the Cleveland Orchestra,
where he had been principal bassoon since 1988. Prior to that, he was principal
bassoon of the Toronto Symphony (1985 to 1988) and principal bassoon of the
Tulsa Philharmonic (1980-81).
McGill has appeared as
soloist with the CSO on over twenty-five occasions, including at Carnegie Hall
in 2005 and with John Williams in his bassoon concerto, The
Five Sacred Trees. He also has performed as soloist with the Cleveland
Orchestra and the Toronto, Oklahoma,and Annapolis symphonies, among others.
McGill was principal bassoon of the World Orchestra for Peace in 1995 and the
Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall in 1994, both under Sir Georg Solti.
He also has performed at the Marlboro, Tanglewood, Aspen, and Santa Fe Chamber
Music festivals.
McGill received the 2001
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra for the Chicago
Symphony’s recording of Strauss’s wind concertos. Other recordings include Musique Française with oboist Alfred Genovese and pianist
Peter Serkin, Orchestral Excerpts for Bassoon (a
teaching CD) and Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra.
In 1994, McGill gave the
world premiere of Oskar Morawetz’s Concerto for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra,
which was written for him, and in 1996, he performed in the American premiere
of Jean Françaix’s Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano at the International
Double Reed Society’s convention.
McGill has given master
classes in Canada, Finland, Hungary and throughout the United States. He has
taught at the University of Toronto, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Indiana
University and DePaul University, and he currently is on the faculty at
Roosevelt University.
McGill is the author of Sound in
Motion: A Performer’s Guide to Greater Musical Expression,
published in 2007 by Indiana University Press. He currently is writing a bio of
the legendary theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore.
A native of
Tulsa, Oklahoma, David McGill holds a bachelor of music degree from the Curtis
Institute of Music, where his teachers included Sol Schoenbach, John de Lancie,
and John Minsker. In 1983, he won first prize in the Fernand Gillet Competition
sponsored by the International Double Reed Society.
March 2012
