Norbert  Nielubowski — bassoon

I'm a native of Chicago, and currently the bassoonist and contrabassoonist of the Minnesota Orchestra. I joined the orchestra in 1987 as second bassoon and became the orchestra's contrabassoonist in 1993. I have extensive chamber music and solo experience, including performances with the Musical Offering and the Minnesota Orchestra's Sommerfest and Minneapolis Art Institute chamber music series. I've also participated in the Strings in the Mountains Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and the Alexandria Festival of the Lakes in Alexandria, Minnesota

Before coming to Minnesota, I was contrabassoonist of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra and principal bassoonist of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra and the Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago. I've also worked as a studio musician in Los Angeles and Chicago on various projects, including motion picture and CD recordings.

My principal teachers were Willard Elliot, John Miller and Louis Skinner. Willard Elliot was the principal bassoonist of the Chicago Symphony. Growing up in Chicago during the heyday of the Solti years when the CSO was known as "the world's greatest orchestra," I had a chance to really get a sense from Willard of what it was like to play in a top- notch orchestra. I had a chance to play next to him in the orchestra for several months in 1992, which was a great experience. I had the same experience with John Miller after studying with him for several years, to become the second bassoonist in the Minnesota  Orchestra in 1987.

I joined the Musical Offering in 1988 at the invitation of the members of the group at that time. 

As for our repertoire, I have particularly enjoyed the larger group pieces (octets and nonets) because of the sound of these groupings, which is bigger than regular chamber music and not quite as big as a chamber orchestra. The Spoor Nonet and Beethoven Septet come to mind at once: the sound is just so different from your typical string quartet or woodwind quintet.

There is something about chamber music that asks you to be involved, so that you come away from the experience a different person. A live performance in a small setting means you're able to see the performers and watch their communication with each other, as well as listen to a performance which will never happen again in quite the same way.

You don't have this kind of intimacy at a rock concert, for example. I'm not sure we can convince young people they should give up rock for chamber music; they simply need to have the exposure, and they will like it or not . Often times, they will come back to it later in life after they have had a chance to experience life and understand the value of serious music.