The 1984 Miller/Skinner Bassoon Symposium Participants [Click on pictures for enlarged view]
Last August saw the founding of a new annual event of interest to bassoonists at all levels of development. The First Annual Miller/Skinner Bassoon Symposium was held on the campus of Towson State University during the week of August 12, 1984. Dr. Gene Griswold, Professor of Bassoon at Towson, coordinated the event, which featured the formidable talents of John Miller and Louis Skinner.
John Miller, currently principal bassoon of the Minnesota Orchestra, established his reputation as a virtuoso soloist with the release of his recording of the Hummel and Weber concerti in 1968. He has since attained prominence with his many solo performances with the Minnesota Orchestra and recordings on the Musical Heritage and ProArte labels. His recording of the Mozart and Vanhal concerto (with Neville Marriner) was just released this spring. A native of Baltimore, Miller studied with Louis Skinner, Arthur Weisberg, Stanley Petrolis, Sherman Walt, Stephen Maxym and Thom de Klerk.
Following a distinguished career as bassoonist and contrabassoonist in the Baltimore Symphony, Louis Skinner has devoted his full time and energy to the development of bassoon reed theory and construction. Since 1972, he has carried on this research and teaching of his method of Jonesport, Maine. He is well known today as one of this or any era's major theorists and teachers of bassoon reed construction. The list of bassoonists who have studied with him or made the pilgrimage to Jonesport to learn his reed method would fill several pages of this journal. This is the first time Mr. Skinner has agreed to teach his method to the wider public, having preferred to restrict his teaching to the one-on-one of the workshop and studio until now.
The week of the Symposium was packed with events and information. Each day's schedule included a morning masterclass with John Miller, an afternoon reed class with Louis Skinner and an evening masterclass or performance, including solo performances by Miller and solo and ensemble performances by the participants. In addition, one evening was given over to the discussion of the problems of leaky bassoons and what to do about them conducted by Robert Barris, the well-known bassoonist and bassoon technician currently on the faculty of Northwestern University. This session was of particular value to me and many of my colleagues who feel much less comfortable dealing with the mechanical problems of our instrument than with performing the Bolero!
Miller's morning masterclasses covered a wide range of topics which included tone production, practice methods, a thorough review of the Mozart concerto and standard excerpts, Baroque performance practice (on which he is an authority) and a discussion of four rather obscure bassoon concerti (by WolfFerrari, Larrson, Vanhal and the spurious second Mozart concerto) which warrant a wider audience. He performed each of these concerti on the closing recital, assisted in the performance of the Wolf-Ferrari Suite-Concertino by three of the participants, who selected and performed a movement each of this unknown work on twenty-four hour's notice (this author being among them).
Louis Skinner's afternoon reed classes were the source of much discussion over the dinner table at Towson State's fine dining hall. Skinner began the week of classes with a fairly involved discussion of the theory of reed construction he has evolved and how it came into being, followed by a point-by-point set of demonstrations of how he constructs a reed to meet the different sets of criteria he specified. This was very new material for most of us, who (like me, I guess) have been making our reeds on a wing and a prayer for so long that the idea that there could be any kind of consistency achieved through practical application of a theory was new ground of a very unfamiliar sort indeed. Those who were not up until the wee-small hours playing Trivial Pursuit were closeted with Lou Skinner trying to learn more or sitting in someone's room reading bassoon ensembles.
The fifty-one bassoonists who attended this past year's Symposium came from the United States, Canada and West Germany and included high school and college students, professionals, amateurs and teachers. This wide range of interests on the part of the participants made for interesting discussions, both during the classes, over dinner, and in the evening. Since we were all housed together on two adjacent floors of Towson's new dormitory complex (across the street from the fine arts center, where all of the events were held), getting together for reed making sessions and rehearsals was very easy. In fact, both the physical arrangements for the Symposium and the schedule were designed to give everyone maximum opportunity to get as much out of the week as possible.
The Second Annual Miller/Skinner Symposium will be held this year from June 23-29 at Towson. In addition to reed- making with Louis Skinner and masterclasses and performances by John Miller, Prof. Frederick Newmann, world-renowned authority on Baroque and Classical performance practice will speak on ornamentation in the bassoon music of Mozart and Vivaldi. Housing and board information for participants who wish to attend just a few of the sessions or who will be commuting can be made. Towson's central-east coast location encourages sightseeing to the Baltimore and Washington areas and makes transportation to the Symposium quite easy. Information on this year's Symposium can be obtained by contacting Gene Griswold, Music Department, Towson State University, Baltimore, MD 21204, (30 1) 321-2839 or (301) 252-5775.