The Bassoon Brothers have been stirring up trouble since they began performing together in 1985. They have stolen material from string quartets, operas, symphonies and popular music, calling it their own with the unmistakable Bassoon Brothers stamp. Their first CD recording, Wanted for Low Down Playing and Bass Behavior on Crystal Records showed many of their musical crimes. They commissioned another known associate musical felon, a fellow bassoonist, Peter Schickele a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach, for some hot goods and more rip-offs. The Bros’s CDs have been the number one selling recordings of all solo or group bassoon recordings on Amazon.com. The irreverence they demonstrate and their theft of musical material continued with the release of their 2002 recoding entitled Captured. Their newest thievery and contraband found in Escaped surfaced in 2007.
Due to the serious nature of their crimes, the Bassoon Brothers have spent some time in prisons in Oregon and California. Performing in prisons has become a passion for the group. They have shadowed the Oregon Symphony on northwest tours for years performing their purloined material in schools, and retirement centers and community outreach programs. The Bassoon Brothers pioneered the Symphony’s Bridgeport Brew Pub Chamber Music on Tap with every performance a sell out. The unusual criminal nature of the group caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal where their photo appeared with an article about the bassoons and brew connection, as did another article in the Seattle Times. HBO’s Dennis Miller Show featured a photo of them with the comment that they were the finalists in the Fifth Annual Amsterdam Bong Hit Festival. The same photo was a recent clue on ABC’s Jeopardy show. Answer: “What is a bassoon?”
What the bassoon does not have is respect. That’s why the Bassoon Brothers call it the Rodney Dangerfield instrument. Their mission is, first, for the public to quit calling it an oboe and, second, a call for more people to take the instrument seriously. They consider the bassoon to be an endangered instrument for lack of players. In the right hands, the “clown of the orchestra” is capable of great versatility and beauty as well as its role as a “belching bedpost”. In some reviews the Bros have been called role models for younger players, having given them material to enjoy the bassoon just for the fun of it. Through this approach they hope to attract more players to the instrument, which is their ultimate mission. As for getting respect, Vivaldi wrote thirty-seven concertos for the bassoon, more than any other instrument except the violin. Unfortunately, it’s been downhill ever since as a solo instrument.
The composer Michael Daugherty, known for his strange and off beat compositions has featured the bassoon in an early composition entitled Dead Elvis, calling for the bassoonist to dress as an Elvis impersonator. When Michael Daugherty began composing his biker bassoonist bash–Hells Angels for Bassoon Quartet and Orchestra, where did he draw some of his inspiration? From a Bassoon Brothers CD, of course. He wanted to see what we were doing, especially the jazzy capabilities of the instrument. The Bassoon Brothers performed Hells Angels in biker gear in May 2002 recorded Hells Angels for DELOS on the American Contrasts CD. The Oregon Symphony is the back up band.
The Bassoon Brothers can be seen on YouTube and have their own website to help promote the instrument and educate bassoonists through their entertaining tidbits about the ‘oondom and their popular advice column which receives questions worldwide from bassoonists, their parents, and band directors.
Sarah Peniston
(Bassoon, saxophones)
Sarah, the sole sister of the group, has been active in the community orchestra scene in Seattle, WA for over 20 years. Sarah plays second bassoon in Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Lake Union Civic Orchestra, and Philharmonia Northwest. She gets around! In addition to her bassoon playing, she leads a saxophone quartet, who won a national anthem contest and performed last summer at a Seattle Mariner’s game. *No actual bassoon reeds were harmed in the making of this photo.
“Doc“ Richard (Dick) Simon is a retired physician (Whitman College 1972 – Chemistry; University of Chicago 1976-MD) who is also a multi-talented musician. The aging “Brothers” need “Doc” because he injects timely doses of Jazz in case of accidental overdoses of classical music. He has performed on woodwinds (saxophones, clarinets, flute, bassoon) in numerous genres over the years (rock, pop, big band, jazz, musical theater, chamber, and orchestral settings). He has performed Debussy’s Rhapsodie Pour Orchestre Et Saxophone (Alto) with the Walla Walla Symphony and he has performed Wanhal’s Concerto for Two Bassoons in F with the Walla Walla Symphony and with the Oregon East Symphony. He recently retired from performing with the Walla Walla Symphony (bassoon and occasionally bass clarinet and saxophones) for 14 years, from performing with the Oregon East Symphony (bassoon) on and off for 25 years, from performing with the Walla Walla Community Band (clarinet) for 3 years, and from performing with the Mill Creek Jazz Band (Baritone Sax) for about 10 years . He is an Applied Music Instructor (bassoon) at Whitman College.
Michael Murray
(Bassoon, contrabassoon, saxophones)
Michael has been playing bassoon and contrabassoon in community orchestras in Seattle for over 43 years. He is currently principal bassoon of Philharmonia Northwest and 3rd bassoon/contrabassoon of the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra and Lake Union Civic Orchestra. Michael studied with Arthur Grossman while attending the University of Washington and also studied with Francine Peterson while attending Western Washington University. At the encouragement of Francine, Michael auditioned for and was accepted into the All American College Orchestra at Disney World’s Epcot Center to play the bassoon and baritone saxophone during the summer of 1986, where he played weekly shows with guest artists such Rosemary Clooney, Maureen McGovern, Donny Osmond,
Mike Post and Toni Tennille. Recently, Michael has joined a saxophone quartet where he plays the tenor saxophone.
Mark Eubanks, a full time rock and roll sax player during his high school and college years, was asked to audition for the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera second bassoon chair during his senior year at University of Washington School of Music, and was told he could finish school “on his own time.” He has been “doing time” ever since: 10 years with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, then 30 years as principal bassoon of the Oregon Symphony. The Bassoon Brothers began innocently enough when Juan DeGomar, fellow bassoonist with the Oregon Symphony asked the rest of his colleagues in the bassoon section to join him on the second half of his Halloween bassoon recital at the Old Church. He said he had gotten some fun bassoon quartet music from his teacher who was a member of the Bubonic Bassoons in Detroit. That night, the group had so much fun, they decided to call themselves the Bassoon Brothers. Dressed like the Blues Brothers, they wowed the audience with their “section rehearsal” and the audience asked for “MORE!” Having been a singer/songwriter and saxophonist with the Tacoma rock band, The Galaxies, during high school and college, Mark realized that this group was going to need more music. So he first “stole” great arrangements from the Taverners Trombones, French Horn quartets, and anywhere else he could find music for the group to play. Harking back to his All City Dance Band and Galaxies Rock Band experience, Mark began generating his own “derangements” combining pop music with recycled snippets of bassoon licks every symphony bassoonist has had to practice over and over. This off beat and humorous music from many different genres became a means of stress relief from the rigid requirements of being professional symphony musicians “who had better play every note exactly right every time or get fired.” Mark was married to Julie Mann for 40 years. Julie’s ancestors on both sides, the Reavis, Ault, and Mann families were long time residents of Wallowa County. After Mark and Julie moved, to Wallowa County in his retirement, he had the privilege of performing with Gail Swart and other fine Wallowa County musicians, and various regional orchestras.