Saxton Rose
Phone:(336)770-3359
Email: roses@ncarts.edu

Saxton Rose joined the UNCSA artist faculty in the fall of 2008 as its full-time teacher of bassoon.

A versatile and dynamic performer, Mr. Rose is active as a soloist and orchestra and chamber musician. As principal bassoonist of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2008, he performed with many of the leading artists of our time, including Yo-Yo Ma, Placido Domingo, Ben Hepner, Anna Netrebko, Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Pepe Romero, Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu, Jane Eaglen, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, and the Emerson String Quartet, among others. He has performed at Carnegie Hall; The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; in the Casals Festival; and on tours to Europe and throughout the Caribbean. He is currently the principal bassoonist of the Winston-Salem Symphony.

As soloist, Mr. Rose has given recitals and performed with orchestras throughout Europe, Latin America, Canada and the United States, including recent concerto appearances with the Panamá Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Camera Concierto and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. He is a frequent guest artist at music festivals throughout the world, having performed and taught at the Burgos Chamber Music Festival; Harlaxton International Chamber Music Festival; Classical Music Festival of Eisenstadt, Austria; and the Double Reed Festival of Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean in Panamá. He has performed solo recitals numerous times as an invited guest at the conference of the International Double Reed Society, an organization for which he serves as assistant editor of the IDRS website.

Throughout his career, Mr. Rose has worked to expand the repertoire of the bassoon by collaborating with established and emerging composers to commission new works. As a member of Camerata Caribe, a Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music faculty chamber ensemble, he collaborated with Puerto Rican composers such as Alfonso Fuentes, William Ortiz, José Rodríguez Alvira and Alberto Rodríguez on the creation of new solo and chamber music for the bassoon. He has premiered innumerable works and is well known for these impassioned performances.

Mr. Rose began studying the bassoon in his hometown near Chicago, Ill. His formal training includes courses in Germany, Austria and Italy with some of Europe's most distinguished bassoonists, including Gustavo Nuñez and Sergio Azzolini. He graduated with highest honors from the class of Stefano Canuti at the Conservatorio "Agostino Steffani" in Castelfranco-Veneto, Italy, and is a former student of William Winstead at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Additionally his teachers include Yoshi Ishikawa and Timothy McGovern.