- Ignore the application deadline; you have until June to apply (or by April 20th without a late fee).
- Pay in full before May 20th and receive a 10% discount.
- If you are in the Utah/Idaho area, you can take a lesson with me and skip sending in a recorded audition. Contact me through my contact form if interested and I will happily answer other questions you may have.
Bassoonist Jessi Vandagriff is well-known as a teacher and chamber musician. She has performed throughout the United States and Europe. Her performances include appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York, Faneuil Hall in Boston, Abravanel Hall and the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, the Deer Valley Music Festival in Park City, Peer Gynt Hall and the Nationalteateret in Norway, Magasinet Hall in Denmark, and at the American Embassy and the United Nations International Day of Families celebration in Stolkholm.
Teaching is a central part of Ms. Vandagriff’s musical activities. She currently teaches bassoon at Brigham Young University–Idaho and in her home studio in Provo, Utah. Her blog for bassoon teachers at www.teachbassoon.com gets hundreds of hits per month. She has participated in performance and educational events at the Swedish Academy of Music, the University of Göteborg, the University of Oslo, the 2005 ASTA National Conference, the 2008 International Double Reed Society Conference, Penn State University, the College of Idaho, and Brigham Young University in Utah.
Ms. Vandagriff has served as principal bassoonist of the Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra as well as the Millennial Choirs and Orchestras and has appeared with the Utah Symphony, Utah Lyric Opera, Utah Baroque Ensemble, and the Martha Graham Dance Company.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Vandagriff has been a member of multiple faculty and professional ensembles. She was a founding member of Aspen Winds, a professional woodwind quintet in Utah. Aspen Winds specializes in introducing audiences to the woodwind quintet repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries. They also frequently perform works for woodwinds and narrator, enlisting a professional storyteller to meld classic fairy tales and favorite stories with music.
She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brigham Young University. As a soloist, chamber musician, and reed maker, she has studied with and been coached by renowned artists and pedagogues such as Christian Smith, Ben Kamins, Frank Morelli, Richard Beene, Robert Williams, George Sakakeeny, Jeffrey Lyman, Nancy Ambrose King, Rebecca Henderson, and Linda Strommen.
Ms. Vandagriff has recorded for Tantara Records as well as multiple independent folk and rock music labels.