Faculty/Guest Recital

Peter Kolkay, bassoon (guest artist)
Claire-Chung Lim, piano

Repertoire to be announced

About the Artist

Called “stunningly virtuosic” by The New York Times and “superb” by the The Washington Post, bassoonist Peter Kolkay claimed first prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in 2002 and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2004. He is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a member of the IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee. He is associate professor of bassoon and chair of the Woodwinds Department at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. Recent highlights include a recording of Stravinsky’s L’histoire du soldat, a chamber music appearance on the String Theory series in Chattanooga, and solo performances at Bargemusic, Wolf Trap, Merkin Hall, St. Martin’s Abbey (Washington), and the Teatro Nacional in Panama City; concerto appearances with the South Carolina, Rochester, and Westchester Philharmonics, and Waukesha Symphony; and chamber music engagements at Music@Menlo and at the Mainly Mozart, Spoleto USA, and Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festivals. Kolkay actively engages with composers in the creation of new works and recently premiered Massarosa for bassoon and string quartet by Mark-Anthony Turnage at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In recent years he has premiered concertos by Harold Meltzer and Joan Tower, as well as solo and chamber works by Judah Adashi, Gordon Beeferman, Elliott Carter, Katherine Hoover, Russell Platt, John Fitz Rogers, Tania León, and Charles Wuorinen. His debut solo CD, BassoonMusic (CAG Records), spotlights works by twenty-first-century American composers. Kolkay was awarded the Carlos Surinach Prize by the BMI Foundation for outstanding service to American music by an emerging artist. He earned a doctorate from Yale University as a student of Frank Morelli and a master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with John Hunt and Jean Barr. A native of Naperville, Illinois, Kolkay earned a bachelor’s degree from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., where he studied with Monte Perkins. His other interests include travel, modern and contemporary art, old mystery novels, and spending time with his three nieces. (Photo by Jim McGuire)