Bassoonist to make her solo debut with symphony orchestra

The Utah Symphony's new principal bassoon, Lori Wike, will be making her solo debut with the orchestra next week.

Wike joined the orchestra last September, and she's delighted to be the featured soloist at Wednesday's chamber orchestra concert. "It's going to be a fun concert and I'm looking forward to it."

Wike said that when her colleagues found out she would be the soloist, some told her, "So you're doing the Mozart concerto."

Mozart's early bassoon concerto is perhaps the best known of the handful of concertos written for the instrument in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. But that's not the one she'll be playing. It wasn't even her first choice.

When music director Keith Lockhart approached her about performing with the orchestra, Wike came up with several suggestions. On the top of her list was Ellen Taaffe Zwillich's concerto. Lockhart agreed, and Wike began preparing.

"I've loved this concerto for a long time," Wike said. "It was written for Nancy Goeres (principal bassoon with the Pittsburgh Symphony), who was one of my former teachers." Goeres premiered the work in 1993 with Pittsburgh and then-music director Lorin Maazel.

Wednesday's concert, under Lockhart's baton, will be Wike's first performance of the work with orchestra. "I've known the concerto since shortly after its premiere, and I've played it on recital, but never with an orchestra. So this will be exciting for me."

Contemporary composers have rediscovered the bassoon as a solo instrument, and that pleases Wike. "The bassoon is a wonderful, lyrical instrument, but the solo repertoire is limited."

John Williams has also written a concerto for bassoon, but Wike considers Zwillich's to be one of the best. "Zwillich explores the full range of the bassoon — all of its lyrical and expressive qualities — but it also puts technical demands on the soloist."

Wike said the concerto is skillfully scored. "The orchestration is rich and powerful, with a wonderful percussion part, but it doesn't overpower the bassoon."

People shouldn't stay away from Wednesday's concert just because there is a contemporary work on the program, Wike said. "There is a lot of substance to Zwillich's music, but it's also accessible. People will be surprised by it."