Sara Schoenbeck

Here's Sara's big ol' bio: ............................................................ ............................................................ ........... Sara Schoenbeck is a bassoonist who dedicates herself to expanding the sound and role of the bassoon in the worlds of contemporary notated and improvised music. The Wire places her in the "tiny club of bassoon pioneers" at work in contemporary music today and the New York Times has called her "riveting, mixing textural experiments with a big, confident sound." ............................................................ ............................................................ ........... From being a member of creative music ensembles, like Wayne Horvitz's Gravitas Quartet, Anthony Braxton's 12+1tet, Ensemble Green (contemporary musics of LA) and the Vinny Golia's Large Ensemble to backing Mos Def in Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra and backing Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder in the Mancini Orchestra, Sara continues to defy categorization as an artist. She has also also shared the stage in improvised music and contemporary music performances with Yusef Lateef, Fred Frith, John Butcher, Mark Dresser, Pauline Oliveros, Wadada Leo Smith, Ne(x)tworks and Nels Cline among many others. A recent transplant from Los Angeles, she spent a portion of her time there recording and also as adjunct faculty at California Institute of the Arts. Feature films she has played on include the Matrix Trilogy, Spanglish and Dahmer. ............................................................ ............................................................ ........... She performs regularly at jazz festivals and venues throughout North America and Europe, notably the Du Maurier Jazz Festival in Vancouver, B.C., the Improvised Music Fest in Antwerp, Belgium and the Berlin Jazz Festival. Sara has received grants from Meet the Composer and the Durfee foundation for outreach work and composition. She received her BFA in bassoon performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her MFA in multi-focus bassoon performance at the California Institute of the Arts.