Our New Second Bassoonist

On Monday of this week we held auditions for Second Bassoon again.  The first time was unsuccessful.  I've written about this here and many of you have read it.

This day was different.  We hired Billy Hestand. 

Billy plays Principal Bassoon in the Brooklyn Philharmonic and freelances in New York City.  He has also played with the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, the New York City Opera and New York City Ballet.

Billy did his studying with Patricia Rogers and Kim Laskoski at the Manahattan School of Music.  He also studied with me at the Interlochen Arts Academy.  I'm very excited and proud to have him join us!

I will write more about this audition in the next few days.  In the meantime, I'm surveying a few of my colleagues on the committee for trends and such that they noticed in the bassoon playing we heard.

I felt the general level of playing was better this time around.  Most of the candidates played with a beautiful sound, fewer were strident or militant in their phrasing, articulation, etc.

Meanwhile, I think we're all happy to have the process behind us and excited to have Billy join us.