Michael Severance
Michael Severance (bassoon) is a San Francisco native who won our Concerto Competition in 2009. In 2014, Michael returned to the Bay Area when he won the highly competitive San Francisco Opera Orchestra audition for third bassoon and contrabassoon.
He began playing bassoon at the age of 17, studying with Stephen Paulson (principal bassoon with the San Francisco Symphony and on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music). Michael later studied with Kristin Wolfe Jensen at the University of Texas and with Benjamin Kamins at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he received his Master in Music degree. In 2014, he won the Shepherd School’s concerto competition, playing Rossini’s Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra. His solo performances there also included the first public performance of Alain Bernaud’s Fagkonzert in 2013. He has played in many orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Alabama Symphony and Louisiana Philharmonic. (Resume updated by Concerto Committee in 2016 from reliable online sources.)
