“Nothing is more satisfying than watching your students learn, grow, mature, and then move on to a new experience, whether that be work or more education. It’s the sole reason why I have spent my entire career helping students find their path in music with the bassoon.”

Jefferson Campbell has performed solo/chamber recitals or taught at the following locations:

United States:

• Lynn Conservatory, Boca Raton, FL

• University of Oklahoma

• Baylor University, TX

• University of Texas at Arlington

• University of North Carolina School of the Arts

• Montclair State University, NJ

• Western Kentucky University

• University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Arizona State University

• Furman University, SC

• Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp

• Summer at Sem Summer Music Festival, Kingston, PA

• Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Bassoon Symposium, Los Angeles, CA (performer and director of the Bassoon Band)

• New York City, NY

• San Francisco, CA

• Miami, FL

• Denver, CO

• Throughout the state of Minnesota

• Bayfield, WI

Europe:

• Conservatory A Rayonnement Régional Boulogne Billancourt, France

• Paris, France

• Conservatory A Rayonnement Régional De Lyon, Lyon, France

• Reims, France

• Cannes, France

• Madrid, Spain

• Seville, Spain

• Berlin, Germany

Russia:

• St. Petersburg Conservatory, St. Petersburg, Russia

• Glazunov Conservatory, Petrozavodsk, Russia

Asia:

• Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Chengdu, China

• International Double Reed Society Conference 2015, Tokyo, Japan

South America

• Conservatorio di Musico, Tatui, Brazil

Over $44,000.00 in grants awarded and more than 20 new compositions commissioned.

Professional Biography:

Considered an international performer and pedagogue of high demand and reputation, Jefferson Campbell has performed on stages throughout the United States and the world. With a focus on music that appeals to all audiences, Dr. Jefferson Campbell has commissioned and premiered over 20 new works for the bassoon in recent years, and has been featured on four compact disc recordings including the Grammy-nominated Nostalgia, and online videos with tens of thousands of views. His New York City debut recital at Symphony Space in January of 2012 was titled “21st Century Bassoon: music that’s fun to play” and featured music composed since 2003.  His collaborations with composers Jess Hendricks, Justin Rubin, Steven Moellering, and marimbaist/composer Gene Koshinski have resulted in a series of popular new pieces featuring the bassoon in a variety of settings including bassoon alone, with piano, with electronic playback and with various combinations of percussion. The recently popular funk bassoon duet “Get It!” by Koshinski was the result of a commission from Campbell in 2007. Dr. Campbell has appeared several times on Nebraska Public Radio, and North Carolina Public Radio. Among his several compact disc recordings, Nostalgia (Innova), which features Dr. Campbell as soloist and chamber musician, was a Grammy Award semifinalist in 2009. He has performed with the Bowling Green Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Owensboro Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Sioux City Symphony, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Richland-Kennewick Symphony, the Chengdu Philharmonic, Minnesota Ballet Orchestra, and the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Campbell has presented master classes at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu, China, the Conservatoire Regionnale Rayonnement Boulogne-Billancourt in Paris, France, the Conservatoire Regionnale Rayonnement Lyon in France, the Conservatorio de Tatui in Brazil,  the Glazunov Conservatory in Petrozavodsk, Russia, the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and in North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kentucky, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. He has performed as a recital soloist in Florida, California, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, New York, South Carolina, Nebraska, Minnesota and also Germany, France, Brazil, Russia and China. Dr. Campbell is a member of the International Double Reed Society, has been published in the Double Reed, and has performed and presented at the IDRS Annual Conferences in 2003 (Greensboro), 2006 (Muncie), 2007 (Ithaca), and 2015 (Tokyo, Japan). Recently, Dr. Campbell was a featured soloist with the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra in performances of Vivaldi’s Concerto in E Minor and Michael Daugherty’s Dead Elvis in July, 2016, and appeared as soloist on Jean Françaix’s Divertiseement for Bassoon and Strings with the Nebraska Chamber Players in 2018. Dr. Campbell has served as adjudicator for the 2012 and 2017 Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition, the Silver Sounds International Chamber Music Competition in Russia, the Minnesota Music Educator’s Association All-State judge for bassoon, and in March of 2013, he performed as soloist at the College Music Society Rocky Mountain conference at the University of Denver. His instructional text Training Wheels for the Bassoon was revised in 2020 for its 15th Anniversary, and he released of a compact disc recording of newly-commissioned music for the bassoon in March, 2019. Dr. Campbell completed a performance and teaching tour of Texas and Oklahoma where he presented recitals of music from this recording project. In 2021 ans 2022, Dr. Campbell will be touring the British Isles with his wife, soprano Jennifer Campbell, and percussionist Gene Koshinski, and featuring the recently-completed new commission from Jenni Brandon and poet Linda LaGarde Glover entitled Sea Smoke, based on the weather phenomenon over Lake Superior where he lives, and the Ojibwe stories connected with it. His academic research interests lie in the area of music for film, where he has developed and instructs a course on this topic at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Additionally, Dr. Campbell is an authority on the music of the Star Wars saga, and frequently presents a lecture-presentation called “John Williams: The Other Star Wars Storyteller” in academic and public settings throughout the country. He is an advocate of film music and raising audience awareness of its importance as an element of film and for its own artistic merit.

He holds the Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree from Western Kentucky University, the Master of Music degree in Bassoon Performance and Chamber Music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Bassoon Performance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His primary teachers were Cynthia Estill, C. Larry Long, Mark Popkin, Gary Echols and Dr. Albie Micklich. His dissertation topic was a performance and theoretical analysis of the Duo Sonata for Two Bassoons by Sofia Gubaidulina including a microtonal fingering chart and performance practice for extended techniques. It was the first academic paper on that composer’s work for bassoon. Dr. Campbell is currently Professor of Bassoon in the Department of Music and serves as Associate Dean for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Reviews:

From the album Pocket Grooves:

"Thanks to Campbell’s technical mastery and his innate musicality and artistry, this disc can be recommended to an audience far beyond the world of bassoonists. With a very natural recorded sound and excellent balances, along with informative, well-written notes by Campbell, my expectations were delightfully exceeded."
Henry Fogel, Fanfare [November/December 2019]

"Campbell and pianist Alexander Sandor seem quite at home in jazz styles. Campbell also seems at home in the very high register... Terrific album."
Kilpatrick, American Record Guide [November/December 2019]

"Campbell has made his mark by commissioning new works for bassoon to increase its solo repertoire and support its place in music. The result on this CD is highly listenable and worthy of many repeat visits to enjoy its content."
Joel C. Thompson, Cherry Grove Music Review [November 2019]

From previous albums:

“Campbell is an excellent musician, and just as Rubin has provided him with a broad range of musical styles, Campbell plays these works with ample sensitivity to their differences. He can bumble with the best of bassoonists, but works such as Un temps calme reveal that he also has a troubadour's soul.”-Fanfare magazine

“Campbell’s rich and resonant sound on this and the other works is quite appropriate, especially on Nostalgia” -American Record Guide

“The bassoonist Jefferson Campbell is the heart of the project: in the performance itself, as well as in the inspiration behind some of the pieces. His playing is indeed inspired and inspiring, technically brilliant and expressive. “- MusicWeb International

“This is certainly abetted by Campbell’s sensitive, seamlessly accurate playing. He strikes just the right tone on the title work, allowing its gentle melodies to be poignant but never overwrought. He performs with considerably incisive flair on the wide-ranging and intriguing solo piece Recitative Styrienne and with percussionist Gene Koshinski on a series of elegantly neoclassical Bagatelles for Bassoon and Marimba. “ -Sequenza21

Recordings:

Tragic Animals, Alias Records 1997:  Soloist, chamber musician

Nostalgia, Innova 2008:  Soloist, chamber musician *Grammy Award Semi-Finalist, Chamber Music Composition

Constellations , MSR 2010:  Soloist, chamber musician

A Waltz Through the Vapor, Innova 2012:  Soloist, chamber musician

Ashfall, NCP 2012:  Soloist, chamber musician

Pocket Grooves, MCR Classics 2019; soloist