Sponsor: Ted & Marie Baker

Since 2000, STEVE VACCHI has been professor of bassoon at the University of Oregon, where he also coordinates the chamber music program. His teachers have included C. Robert Reinert, Rebecca Eldredge, Matthew Ruggiero, K. David Van Hoesen, Stephen Maxym, Frank Morelli, and William Ludwig. He holds degrees in performance from the Eastman School of Music (B.M. with 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. His dissertation is a “how-to” for bassoonists on fluttertongue and singing while playing; it focuses on five solo works requiring both techniques. A member of Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Kappa Phi, he was formerly a faculty member at Wichita State University (KS) and the Brevard Music Center (NC). He has presented masterclasses at high schools, conservatories, and universities throughout the United States and China, and served as a faculty sabbatical replacement at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

Vacchi’s recording credits include Argo, BMG Classics, Centaur, Innova, NMC (Israel), North Pacific, Sony Classical, Edward Hines Music, Equilibrium, 8 Bells Records, Origin Classical, Quadre Music Group, AFKA Records, PentaTone, Parma Records, Orange Mountain Music, Bridge Records, Mark Records, and Imagine Music. He has performed in 24 countries throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. In the U.S., Vacchi has performed with The Florida Orchestra, Santa Fe ProMusica, the Rhode Island, Tulsa, and Rochester Philharmonics, and the Saint Louis, New World, Baton Rouge, Colorado, Honolulu, Kansas City, Oregon, Sarasota, New Haven, and Wichita Symphony Orchestras. He is a member of the Oregon Bach Festival, Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (CA), and Music on the Hill (RI). He has performed in backup groups for such diverse artists as Michael Brecker, Victor Borge, Garrison Keillor, Luciano Pavarotti, Tony Bennett, The Moody Blues, and Peter Schickele. Vacchi has been 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.

An advocate of new music, Vacchi has performed 465 recently composed works, including 148 premieres. A member of the Oregon Wind Quintet, he also performs with Douglas Detrick’s AnyWhen Ensemble, which features contemporary improvisation and jazz-influenced chamber music. Vacchi maintains interests in instrument collecting and early music, performing on dulcian, rackett, Baroque, Classical, and French bassoons. He has performed on historical bassoons with ensembles throughout the west coast, including the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, Vancouver's Pacific Baroque Orchestra, and with members of Seattle Baroque.

August 2017