McGill, David

He is a bassoonist and author born in Tulsa, Oklahoma who earned his degree at the Curtis Institute of Music and won the first prize at the Fernand Giller Competition in 1983.

He was Principal Bassoon of the Tulsa Philharmonic from 1980 to 1981 and joined the Toronto Symphony as Principal Bassoon in 1985, remaining until 1988. He moved from Toronto to Ohio to join the Cleveland Orchestra where he was Principal Bassoon until 1997. That same year he became Principal Bassoon of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after being appointed by the music director Daniel Barenboim in 1996. In 1994 performed in the Solti Orchestral Project and in 1995 he was Principal Bassoon of the World Orchestra for Peace. He resigned his position with the CSO in 2014 to be a full-time teacher at Northwestern University and made his final performance with the orchestra at the Ravinia Festival.

As a soloist he has performed with the Annapolis Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Oklahoma Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. The Five Sacred Trees bassoon concerto by John Williams and a solo performance at Carnegie Hall in 2005 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are just two of his 25 solo performances with the CSO. He won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra in 2001 for his recording of Strauss wind concertos with the CSO.

As a chamber musician he gave the world premiere of Concerto for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra, which had been written for him by Oskar Morawetz, in 1994 and in 1996 performed the American premiere of Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano by Jean Francaix at the International Double Reed Society convention. He has been a participant at music festivals he has performed at Aspen, Marlboro, Santa Fe and Tanglewood chamber music festivals.

Recordings he has featured/performed on include Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion by P.D.Q. Bach. Musique Francaise with Carla Chrisfield, Alfred Genovese and Peter Serkin, Richard Strauss: Wind Concertos and the soundtrack of the film Lincoln with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Mozart: Clarinet Concerto/Oboe Concerto/Bassoon Concerto, Orchestral Excerpts for Bassoon with the Cleveland Orchestra and International Double Reed Society 25th Anniversary by the International Double Reed Society.

In the field of musical education he has been on the faculties of the Beinen School of Music at Northwestern University and Roosevelt University and has also taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, DePaul University, Indiana University and the University of Toronto. He has also given master classes nationally and internationally.

As an author he has has been working on a biography of the theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore and has written Sound in Motion: A Performer’s Guide to Greater Musical Expression which was published in 2007.

Sources:

McGill, David

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