Bassoonist David McGill has been appointed to the Bienen School of Music faculty, Dean Toni-Marie Montgomery recently announced. He will join the Bienen School in Fall 2014 as professor of bassoon.

Mr. McGill has served as principal bassoonist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the past 17 years before announcing his retirement to accept the full-time Bienen School post. He had previously served as principal bassoonist for the Cleveland Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, and the Tulsa Philharmonic. He was principal bassoon of the World Orchestra for Peace in 1995 and the Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall in 1994, both under Sir Georg Solti. He has appeared as soloist with the CSO, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Toronto, Oklahoma, and Annapolis symphonies, among others.

Mr. McGill received the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra for the Chicago Symphony’s recording of Strauss’s wind concertos. Other recordings include Musique Française with oboist Alfred Genovese and pianist Peter Serkin, Orchestral Excerpts for Bassoon (a teaching CD), and Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra. He is the author of Sound in Motion: A Performer’s Guide to Greater Musical Expression (Indiana University Press, 2007).

Mr. McGill has taught at the University of Toronto, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Indiana University, DePaul University, and Roosevelt University. He has given master classes in Canada, Finland, Hungary, and throughout the United States. A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, he holds a bachelor of music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music.


  • David McGill
  • Toni-Marie Montgomery