musicians of Note
Sue Heineman has been principal bassoonist of the National Symphony Orchestra since September 2000. Prior to joining the NSO, she held positions with the New Haven, Memphis, New Mexico, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras. She has appeared as soloist with the NSO on numerous occasions, as well as with the Kennedy Center Chamber Players, comprised of principal players from the NSO. Ms. Heineman has performed as guest principal bassoonist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and is a frequent soloist at conferences of the International Double Reed Society. A former member of the Aspen Wind Quintet, she has performed with the American Chamber Players, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Santa Fe Opera, and Metropolitan Opera. In summers she has played and taught at Aspen, Eastern Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, Mainly Mozart, Bowdoin, and Grand Teton Music Festival.
Originally from Philadelphia, Ms. Heineman holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Eastman and a master's degree from Juilliard. She also completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Rochester, graduating summa cum laude with Phi Beta Kappa honors, and was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to Salzburg. Her teachers include Shirley Curtiss, David Van Hoesen, Milan Turkovic, Judith LeClair, and Stephen Maxym.
William Winstead
Recipient of the University of Cincinnati's Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award (2006-2007), William Winstead was the principal bassoonist at the Marlboro Music Festival under Pablo Casals, and is currently a senior faculty member there. Other festivals include Spoleto, Italy's Festival of Two Worlds, Aspen Music Festival and the Sarasota Music Festival. He was a soloist with Pittsburgh Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony, as well as recitalist for conferences of the International Double Reed Society for which he was past president.
He gives master classes and appearances as a soloist throughout the U.S. and is a member of the National Endowment for the Arts Music Advisory Panel for Solo Recitalist Grants, as well as the Concert Artists Guild Competition. As a composer, he has enjoyed premieres of major works by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony, and in 1976 received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for a bicentennial work for narrator and orchestra. His 'Concerto for Bassoon' was an award winner in the George Eastman Prize Competition.
A former faculty member at Oberlin Conservatory, Florida State University and West Virginia University, he currently is the principal bassoonist for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
william ludwig
William Ludwig joined the faculty of the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University as Professor of Bassoon in August of 2007 and was appointed Chair of the Woodwind Department in 2010. Previous to this appointment he had been Professor of Bassoon at Louisiana State University since 1985. For the last ten summers he has been in residence at the Brevard Music Center as principal bassoon of the Brevard Music Center Orchestra and artist-teaching faculty. His orchestral experience also includes principal bassoon with the Baton Rouge Symphony (1986-2007) and the Florida Orchestra (1980-1985). A noted chamber musician he has performed in a wide variety of settings in the United States and Europe, including at the Prague Spring International Music Festival, Highlands (NC) Chamber Music Festival and Hot Springs Music Festival and with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Timm Wind Quintet and Ars Nova Wind Quintet. He was artist-in-residence at the State University of New York-Stony Brook Department of Music from 1989 to 1994 concurrently with his LSU appointment and taught at the University of South Florida from 1979 to 1985. He holds degrees from Louisiana State University and Yale School of Music and has had the privilege of studying with John Patterson, Sol Schoenbach, Leonard Sharrow, Bernard Garfield and Arthur Weisberg.
Reviews of Mr. Ludwig’s performances attest to his vibrant and communicative style: “everything was played with fluency, virtuosity and élan” (Kansas City Times). Response to his first solo CD of transcriptions included: “Indeed, with Ludwig’s incredible technique, beautiful tone, and warm phrasing, they all sounded convincing in this new ‘guise’…This is a convincingly impressive album, the work of a master bassoonist” (The Double Reed). One reviewer described a concerto performance as “the kind of performance that reawakened one’s imagination to the rich possibilities the instrument can have” (Baton Rouge Morning Advocate).