• President
• Vice President

• Bassoon

My interest in being considered for a board member position with the midsouth regional chapter of IDRS is fueled by my desire to have a more active role in the organization. As a bassoonist and member of IDRS, I know of the great national and international connections that membership provides. It is my hope that being involved organizationally at the regional level would provide a platform to better help me serve the area in which I live and work. As Assistant Professor of bassoon at Louisiana State University, connections and collaboration with students, educators, and performers in my state and region are already an important part of my career. By serving on the board for the midsouth, I would strive to represent the interests of double reed players in my area by organizing and promoting events, establishing and nurturing connections, and encouraging cooperation, collaboration and visibility in the region.

Praised as “outstanding” by New York Classical Review, bassoonist Nanci Belmont is a dynamic performer and educator currently serving as Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Louisiana State University. An engaging soloist, Nanci is a Performing Artist for Leitzinger Bassoons and Second Prize winner of the 2016 Fernand Gillet-Hugo Fox Competition of the International Double Reed Society. She is driven by a desire to cultivate meaningful relationships and relevant musical experiences through performance and is frequently invited to perform as a soloist and chamber musician on festivals and series throughout the United States. Nanci is a member of The City of Tomorrow, an experimental wind quintet dedicated to the performance and expansion of contemporary repertoire and is also active in the commissioning of new works for bassoon. In other contemporary music ventures, Nanci often collaborates with contemporary groups such as Talea ensemble International Contemporary Ensemble, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, and Alarm Will Sound. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with groups such as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York City Ballet Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, and Charleston Symphony. In her role as an educator, Nanci strives to cultivate curious, lifelong learners in music. She has been invited to present clinics and master classes at a variety of colleges and universities across the country and is also on faculty at the Mostly Modern Festival in Saratoga Springs, NY and the Trentino Music Festival Chamber Music & Orchestral Studio in Italy.