Bassoonist and long-time former School of Music professor Arthur Grossman returns to campus to lead a master class with UW bassoon students of Paul Rafanelli (Grossman’s former UW student).
Biographies
ARTHUR GROSSMAN was born in New York City. He began his professional career at the age of thirteen, when he joined the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra, with which he performed for four years. After a further season with the San Antonio Symphony, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Sol Schoenbach and took chamber music classes with Marcel Tabuteau. Upon graduation he joined the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra, which was stationed in Europe and with which he performed for three years, during which time the Seventh Army Wind Quintet, later the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet, was formed. After two seasons when he served as principal bassoon with the Indianapolis Symphony and one with the Cincinnati Symphony, Soni Ventorum was asked by Pablo Casals to form the wind faculty of the newly created Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. Seven years and several recordings later Soni Ventorum moved to Seattle to join the faculty of the School of Music of the University of Washington. Grossman has toured world-wide with Soni Ventorum and as a soloist, and has made more than thirty recordings. He has also served as principal bassoon in the Israel Philharmonic. In January 1988 he became Divisional Dean for Arts of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, a position in which he served for ten years. In 2000 he purchased a Heckelphone, an instrument on which he has worked assiduously. He retired from the University of Washington in June 2004. He continues to perform and record on both bassoon and Heckelphone.