Evan Kuhlmann

Acting Principal Bassoonist

What convinced you that you wanted a career in music?

“My band director at Washington Middle School in Seattle: Bob Knatt. I had always enjoyed music, but he made it inspiring on an incredible level. In one specific life-changing conversation during a particularly rough time, I admitted to him (and to myself) that I wanted to play in a professional orchestra.”

What is on your CD player right now?

“I really like the ‘random play all’ function on my mp3 player because I have eclectic musical taste! Lately I’ve been listening to the Brad Mehldau/Pat Metheny collaboration, The Allman Brothers Band’s live recordings, Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar and Björk’s new album Volta.”

How did you choose your instrument?

“My mom played a recording of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring for me and I was taken with the sound of the opening solo. For a while, I would listen to that piece every night with headphones while I went to sleep.”

What is on your nightstand?

“It’s a mess! There’s John Allen Paulos’ book Innumeracy, a study score to Henri Dutilleux’s Metaboles, a lamp, a few cards, some bills, and two Zurnas (a Middle-Eastern double reed instrument) that my uncle brought back from Turkey.”

What guest artist would you most like to perform with?

“That’s a tough one… Dawn Upshaw, Björk, or maybe the British band Radiohead. I was watching some incredible video the other day of them performing live with three ondes martenots (an early electronic keyboard).”

Besides your instrument, what is your most treasured possession?

“My laptop. It probably doesn’t sound very sentimental, but all of my musical compositions are saved on it. This includes my oldest surviving piece, a string quartet, originally written on the school bus with notebook paper when I was nine years old. It clocks in at a hefty 15 seconds!”