Jesse Read

Jesse Read has performed as principal bassoonist with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, the CBC Radio-Curio Ensemble, the Turning Point Ensemble, the National Broadcast Orchestra and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra. He has also appeared as a soloist with the CBC Radio Orchestra, the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Rotterdam and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, among others.

He toured with the Metropolitan Opera National Company and performed with San Francisco Opera. He has also worked in Hollywood performing in motion picture soundtracks and TV series. He has recorded with Tafelmusik of Toronto, Philharmonia Baroque San Francisco, Capella Clementina Köln, Philomel, and the Boston and Los Angeles Baroque Orchestras. He has also released numerous solo CDs to wide acclaim on the Etcetera, Bravura, Musical Heritage and Skylark labels.

Jesse completed postgraduate study at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Music Academy in Basel, Switzerland, where he specialized in the performance of 17^th- and 18^th-century music. He has written on the subject extensively, published numerous editions of wind music, and championed lesser-known composers and commissioned numerous works. He performed and toured extensively with Il Divertimento, a wind ensemble performing on original instruments.

He has held teaching positions at the University of Victoria, University of Delaware and the Utrecht Conservatory, and he has taught master classes for the European Mozart Academy and at the conservatories of Montpellier, Lisbon, Warsaw, Prague, UCLA, Indiana University, and the National University of the Arts in Taiwan, among numerous others. He was involved for 29 years as solo bassoonist with the Carmel Bach Festival in California. He was appointed to the faculty of UBC in 1990 and served as director of the School of Music for 11 years.