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Bassoon

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Invented: 1668

Fun Facts

  • To play the bassoon, musicians blow through a double reed. The reeds vibrate against each other and create sound!
  • The bassoon is 4 feet long and is one of the heaviest instruments in the orchestra.
  • To help hold the bassoon in the right place to play, musicians will commonly clip a strap to the bottom of the bassoon, place it across their chair, and sit on it.
  • The other common instrument in the bassoon family is the contrabassoon (larger).

Famous Works

Listen to the Bassoon

Every instrument gets its moment to shine! Press a Listen button below and hear what the Bassoon can do.

  • Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring

    This piece opens with a bassoon solo so high and strange that many listeners don’t even recognize the instrument at first. This fragile, strain-filled solo feels like the first pale shoot of spring struggling to break through frozen earth.

    Listen

  • Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf

    The bassoon takes on the role of the grumpy Grandfather, using its low, staccato voice to mimic his slow, heavy footsteps and mutterings. Every dry, reedy note brings his strict, scolding personality to life.

    Listen

CSO Members

Meet the Musicians

Get to know the people behind the music! In this section, you’ll meet the talented musicians of the Columbus Symphony, learn about their instruments, and discover what inspires them to perform. 

  • Betsy Sturdevant

    Principal Bassoon

    Betsy Sturdevant

    Betsy Sturdevant’s career began early, when she won the second bassoon position with the Binghamton (NY) Symphony at age 15. While attending the Eastman School of Music (studying with K. David van Hoesen), she won a contracted position with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. During summers Betsy studied with the renowned Japanese bassoonist Ryohei Nakagawa, former principal of the San Fransisco Symphony. After receiving a  Bachelor’s degree and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, she won the principal bassoon position with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra

    Betsy has performed at summer festivals in Aspen, CO; Boulder, CO, Chautauqua, NY and Spoleto, Italy. She has been featured as a bassoon concerto soloist with orchestras in Ohio, Indiana, and New York. In 2019 she performed the Hummel Grand Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra with the McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra and in 2025 she performed the Weber Hungarian Fantasy at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Indianapolis

    Additionally, she maintains a private teaching studio and regularly coaches Columbus Symphony Cadet and Youth Orchestra wind players. One of her students was recently awarded the highly prestigious Kovner Fellowship to cover all of his expenses for 4 years at Juilliard. Betsy is also on the faculty at the Capital University Conservatory of Music. A new work for unaccompanied bassoon entitled Etude on a Variation by Ohio composer Mark Biggam was dedicated to Betsy.

  • Douglas Fisher

    Bassoon

    Douglas Fisher

    Douglas Fisher joined the CSO as Second Bassoon in 1984 after graduating with Distinction and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. He was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for two years and spent summers performing with the Spoleto Festival in Charleston and Italy, the Colorado Philharmonic, and the Heidelberg Castle Festival in Germany. He was also a finalist in the 1985 Gillet Competition of the International Double Reed Society. In 1992 Doug was one of the first two musicians to serve on the CSO Board and since 1995 has served as President of the Local Musicians’ Union.