Frank Morelli

bassoonist

Frank Morelli, a student of Stephen Maxym, was the first bassoonist ever to be awarded a doctorate by The Juilliard School. A soloist in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium on nine occasions, he performed regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for over thirty years, including at the White House for the final State Dinner of the Clinton presidency. Emeritus Co-Principal Bassoon of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Morelli has held faculty positions at the Yale School of Music, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, The Glenn Gould School, SUNY Stony Brook, and Queens College, CUNY. Of his nearly 200 recordings, From the Soul is his sixth solo album and his second release on the Musica Solis label, following An die Musik. Among his extensive discography, Gramophone magazine praised his performance on the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Mozart’s wind concertos with Orpheus, noting that “Frank Morelli’s Bassoon Concerto is probably the pick of the series” and that “Morelli’s playing is a joy to behold.” The American Record Guide stated, “[his] bassoon playing … is as good as it gets.” Regarding his recent foray into jazz (The OX-MO Incident with saxophonist Keith Oxman), JazzWeekly.com wrote: “Morelli makes the usually unwieldy bassoon work wonders… [he] bops with delight… and he glistens on ‘Full Moon and Empty Arms,’ and is elegiac in ‘Three for Five.’” The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra recording Shadow Dances, featuring Morelli, won a 2001 Grammy Award. A performer and juror at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals, he is also a member of Windscape, the woodwind quintet in residence at the Manhattan School of Music. Morelli has published numerous transcriptions (TrevCo Music), the landmark excerpt book Stravinsky: Difficult Passages for Bassoon (Boosey & Hawkes), and his definitive edition of the Weissenborn: The First Complete Bassoon Method and Studies (Carl Fischer). Frank Morelli plays a Leitzinger bassoon exclusively. 

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