RYAN REYNOLDS, BASSOON
The Akropolis Reed Quintet’s bassoonist, Dr. Ryan Reynolds, is Lecturer of Bassoon at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI. He received his education at the Interlochen Arts Academy (‘08), University of Michigan (BM ‘12, MM ‘14), and Florida State University (DM ‘17) where he studied with Eric Stomberg, Jeffrey Lyman, and Jeff Keesecker.
As a performer, Dr. Reynolds has won many awards with Akropolis, and in 2018, his collaboration with legendary clarinetist David Shifrin on the studio recording of a new chamber music version of Carl Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto was released on Delos Records and nominated for an International Classical Music Award. Additionally, Reynolds has performed on occasion with orchestras throughout the United States including the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, and Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra.
An educator, Dr. Reynolds is on the summer faculty of the Renova Music Festival, and has given masterclasses and lectures in Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and at many top American universities, including the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Michigan, and Northwestern University. Reynolds was a judge for the junior level at the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and was Akropolis’ representative to judge the Barlow Endowment’s first prize for a reed quintet commission the same year.
Reynolds contributes to the International Double Reed Society as the Lead Bassoon Recordings Reviewer for the quarterly journal The Double Reed, and as an officer on the IDRS Commissioning Sub-Committee. At the Society’s conference at Granada, Spain in 2018, he premiered composer Ethan Wickman’s Cuatro Escanas del Cante Jondo for bassoon and piano, Per Bloland’s Asemic Patterns for oboe and bassoon, and Chiel Meijering’s the green reed which blows in the wind for 12 bassoons and string orchestra. At the Society’s 2019 conference in Tampa, FL, Dr. Reynolds performed a set of masterworks for the reed quintet to a full house with Akropolis.