Steve Vacchi, Bassoon

Bassoonist Steve Vacchi holds degrees in performance from the Eastman School of Music (B.M. high distinction/Performer’s Certificate), The Hartt School (M.M.), and Louisiana State University (D.M.A.), where he held a Board of Regents Fellowship. He also studied at the Yale School of Music. He has presented masterclasses throughout the United States, South Korea, Thailand, and China, and served as a faculty sabbatical replacement at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Vacchi’s recording credits include 32 releases of wide-ranging repertoire from J.S. Bach to the present. He has performed in 26 countries throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. In the U.S., Steve has performed with The Florida Orchestra, Santa Fe ProMusica, the Rhode Island, Tulsa, Rochester, and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the Saint Louis, New World, Baton Rouge, Colorado, Honolulu, Kansas City, Charleston, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, New Haven, and Wichita Symphony Orchestras. A featured soloist in works by Haydn, Mozart, Strauss, J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, Lindpaintner, Jurriaan Andriessen, Michael Daugherty, Walter Hartley, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Walter Mays, Peter Hope, and James Stephenson, Vacchi has performed more than 500 recently composed works, including 170 premieres. A member of the Eugene Symphony, OrchestraNext, and the Oregon Bach Festival and regular extra with the Oregon Symphony, Vacchi also performs on rare woodwinds including heckelphone, contrabass sarrusophone, basset horn, and contrabass clarinet. He has been Professor of Bassoon at the University of Oregon since 2000, where he also serves as Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs.