The Wire magazine places Sara Schoenbeck in the "tiny club of bassoon pioneers" at work in contemporary music today and the New York Times has called her performances "galvanizing" and "riveting, mixing textural experiments with a big, confident sound.”
While focusing on the intersections between texture, color and melody Sara works to expand the notion of what the bassoon is capable of in both notated and improvised music. She has been a member of Anthony Braxton’s 12+1(tet) and the Tri-Centric Orchestra, Gravitas Quartet with Wayne Horvitz, Ron Miles and Peggy Lee, Nels Clines Lovers Orchestra, Michael Bates Acrobat Ensemble and Dana Lyn's Mother Octopus. She performs and tours regularly with Wayne Horvitz, Matt Mitchell, Wavefield Ensemble, Petr Kotek’s SEM ensemble, Roscoe Mitchell, the composers group WetInk, Henry Threadgill, the Michael Leonhart Orchestra, Adam Rudolph’s Go Organic Orchestra with Brooklyn Raga Massive and Harris Eisenstadt's Golden State. In years past Sara performed with Butch Morris; Eve Risser’s White Desert Orchestra, Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra, Vinny Golia’s Large Ensemble and with Wadada Leo Smith. Sara can be heard on music and film recordings including Matrix 2 and 3, Spanglish and Dahmer. In the fall of 2021, Sara released her self-titled debut album on Pyroclastic Records which features nine different duet partners for nine different self-composed, arranged and improvised duets. The album was recorded in seven different places across North America beginning before the pandemic.
She has performed at major venues throughout North America and Europe. A partial list includes the Free Music Festival in Antwerp Belgium, Biennale Musica in Venice Italy, Berlin Jazz Festival, Jazz Em Agosto in Portugal, ZomerJazzFiets Tour in Holland, Newport Jazz Festival, New Orleans Jazz Festival, SXSW, EarShot Jazz Festival in Seattle, Victoriaville, Something Else Festival in Hamilton ON, Edgefest in Ann Arbor, Ottawa Jazz Festival, the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival in Los Angeles; San Francisco Jazz Festival, Saalfelden Festival in Austria, Tempere Jazz Festival in Finland, the NY Winter Jazz Festival, the American Festival of Microtonal Music, Los Angeles’s MicroFest, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, the NY VisionFest, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Birdland, the Kitchen, Iridium, Disney Hall, Redcat, and the Kennedy Center.
Sara received her BFA from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. She has been adjunct faculty at California Institute of the Arts and Citrus College and has given masterclasses on improvisation for bassoonists at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Cornish College, University of Denver, Western Washington University and Sacramento State University.
While focusing on the intersections between texture, color and melody Sara works to expand the notion of what the bassoon is capable of in both notated and improvised music. She has been a member of Anthony Braxton’s 12+1(tet) and the Tri-Centric Orchestra, Gravitas Quartet with Wayne Horvitz, Ron Miles and Peggy Lee, Nels Clines Lovers Orchestra, Michael Bates Acrobat Ensemble and Dana Lyn's Mother Octopus. She performs and tours regularly with Wayne Horvitz, Matt Mitchell, Wavefield Ensemble, Petr Kotek’s SEM ensemble, Roscoe Mitchell, the composers group WetInk, Henry Threadgill, the Michael Leonhart Orchestra, Adam Rudolph’s Go Organic Orchestra with Brooklyn Raga Massive and Harris Eisenstadt's Golden State. In years past Sara performed with Butch Morris; Eve Risser’s White Desert Orchestra, Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra, Vinny Golia’s Large Ensemble and with Wadada Leo Smith. Sara can be heard on music and film recordings including Matrix 2 and 3, Spanglish and Dahmer. In the fall of 2021, Sara released her self-titled debut album on Pyroclastic Records which features nine different duet partners for nine different self-composed, arranged and improvised duets. The album was recorded in seven different places across North America beginning before the pandemic.
She has performed at major venues throughout North America and Europe. A partial list includes the Free Music Festival in Antwerp Belgium, Biennale Musica in Venice Italy, Berlin Jazz Festival, Jazz Em Agosto in Portugal, ZomerJazzFiets Tour in Holland, Newport Jazz Festival, New Orleans Jazz Festival, SXSW, EarShot Jazz Festival in Seattle, Victoriaville, Something Else Festival in Hamilton ON, Edgefest in Ann Arbor, Ottawa Jazz Festival, the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival in Los Angeles; San Francisco Jazz Festival, Saalfelden Festival in Austria, Tempere Jazz Festival in Finland, the NY Winter Jazz Festival, the American Festival of Microtonal Music, Los Angeles’s MicroFest, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, the NY VisionFest, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Birdland, the Kitchen, Iridium, Disney Hall, Redcat, and the Kennedy Center.
Sara received her BFA from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. She has been adjunct faculty at California Institute of the Arts and Citrus College and has given masterclasses on improvisation for bassoonists at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Cornish College, University of Denver, Western Washington University and Sacramento State University.
