the band
The LuftBassoons is a Tucson based band of bassoons on a mission to bring the magic of the bassoon everywhere and anywhere. Classical, pop, contemporary.. no music is left unexplored by this band of four individuals sharing one common goal of sharing great music, of all genres, on the best instrument ever made: The Bassoon.
Founded in 2013 by Juan José Arévalo, LuftBassoons was formed from the hugely talented primordial bassoon ooze that is the Tucson bassoon community. Beginning as loose sessions of duets through sextets, the group finally found its current configuration in 2016 with members Juan José Arévalo, Cassandra Bendickson, Brenda Willer Buys, and Daniel Hursey and has featured such stellar adjunct members as the incredible Peggy Dudley and Robert Williams.
LuftBassoons (LBQ) began a live music residency with the Ballet Conservatory of Dance Music & Art in Tucson in 2014 and in 2016, made their international debut at the Festival Alfonso Ortiz Tirado (FAOT) in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. They returned that same year to the inaugural Festival Arenál for Contemporary Music in Hermosillo, where they had the honor of premiering their first commissioned work, “La Republica del Agua” by Mexican bassoonist and composer, Juan Carlos Villaseñor.
In 2019, LBQ were featured guest artists for Bassoon Week at Texas A & M University in Corpus Christi and that same summer, they began a year-long project to fund “New Works for Bassoon Quartet”, a project to fund newly commissioned works for bassoon quartet by local composers. Thanks to a New Works grant from the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, this project was fully funded in 2019-2020 and resulted in the commissioning of six new works for bassoon quartet by local composers Jay Vosk, Marco Rosano, Dante Rosano, Russell Ronnebaum, Samantha Bounkeua, and Chris Black. “Cancion de Cuna” by Jay Vosk was premiered in July 2020 at the International Double Reed Society Conference, and “Oceans” by Samantha Bounkeua was premiered at the January 2021 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Symposium, both to international virtual audiences.
LuftBassoons continue on their commissioning journey with world premieres in January 2023 of two brand new works by award-winning Mexican cellist and composer, Nubia Melina Jaime Donjuan at the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Symposium, this time live and in their own home town of Tucson, Arizona.
Founded in 2013 by Juan José Arévalo, LuftBassoons was formed from the hugely talented primordial bassoon ooze that is the Tucson bassoon community. Beginning as loose sessions of duets through sextets, the group finally found its current configuration in 2016 with members Juan José Arévalo, Cassandra Bendickson, Brenda Willer Buys, and Daniel Hursey and has featured such stellar adjunct members as the incredible Peggy Dudley and Robert Williams.
LuftBassoons (LBQ) began a live music residency with the Ballet Conservatory of Dance Music & Art in Tucson in 2014 and in 2016, made their international debut at the Festival Alfonso Ortiz Tirado (FAOT) in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. They returned that same year to the inaugural Festival Arenál for Contemporary Music in Hermosillo, where they had the honor of premiering their first commissioned work, “La Republica del Agua” by Mexican bassoonist and composer, Juan Carlos Villaseñor.
In 2019, LBQ were featured guest artists for Bassoon Week at Texas A & M University in Corpus Christi and that same summer, they began a year-long project to fund “New Works for Bassoon Quartet”, a project to fund newly commissioned works for bassoon quartet by local composers. Thanks to a New Works grant from the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, this project was fully funded in 2019-2020 and resulted in the commissioning of six new works for bassoon quartet by local composers Jay Vosk, Marco Rosano, Dante Rosano, Russell Ronnebaum, Samantha Bounkeua, and Chris Black. “Cancion de Cuna” by Jay Vosk was premiered in July 2020 at the International Double Reed Society Conference, and “Oceans” by Samantha Bounkeua was premiered at the January 2021 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Symposium, both to international virtual audiences.
LuftBassoons continue on their commissioning journey with world premieres in January 2023 of two brand new works by award-winning Mexican cellist and composer, Nubia Melina Jaime Donjuan at the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Symposium, this time live and in their own home town of Tucson, Arizona.