DR. MIDORI SAMSON, BASSOON
Instructional Assistant Professor, Illinois State University
Section Bassoon, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
Dr. Midori Samson サムソンみどり(she/her) is thrilled to join the faculty at the Bay View Music Festival! Currently, she is an Instructional Assistant Professor at Illinois State University and Section Bassoon of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. As an orchestral bassoonist, she previously performed with the Chicago, Charleston, Omaha, South Dakota, and New World symphonies, Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Boston Festival Orchestra, New York String Orchestra, and National Orchestral Institute. As a chamber musician, she has performed with the Banff Centre (Canada), Caroga Arts Collective, LunART, Maryland Chamber Winds, and Norfolk and Bowdoin International music festivals.
Having minored in social welfare during her doctoral studies, Dr. Samson’s ongoing research explores how musicians can utilize social work principles as anti-racist, anti-oppressive action in music teaching and performing. As an educator, her applied and classroom teaching emphasizes trauma-informed and healing-centered approaches. Her commitment to the social justice aspects of music is demonstrated in her recent work as Artistic Director of Trade Winds Ensemble (a group of teaching artists that lead youth composition workshops with community organizations in Chicago, Detroit, Oklahoma, and Nairobi) and as a teaching artist with Artists Striving to End Poverty (where she led multidisciplinary arts workshops at a residential school that aims to eradicate India’s caste system). Other recent activities include residencies at the Flying Carpet Festival (a touring circus that performs for refugee children on the Turkey-Syria border), Ubumuntu Festival (at which she co-created a play with local artists that commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide), Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, and Youth Music Culture Guangdong (China), by invitation from Yo-Yo Ma.
Dr. Samson earned degrees in bassoon from The Juilliard School, University of Texas at Austin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and completed a fellowship with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago (the training program of the Chicago Symphony). Currently, she is pursuing a second master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan.