Guest Artist Residency: Nadine Mackie Jackson, bassoon - Course on Creativity

About Nadina Mackie Jackson, bassoon

Named Instrumentalist of the Year 2020 by Just Plain Folks, NADINA MACKIE JACKSON is the most widely recorded Canadian bassoonist in history with 13 solo albums, 8 chamber music recordings and over 100 albums with symphony, chamber, and historical instrument orchestras.

The first woman bassoonist to receive tenure in a major Canadian orchestra, Nadina spent a decade with the Montreal Symphony and the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra before developing a distinguished chamber music and solo career.

Eighteen new works for solo bassoon and orchestra have been written for Nadina by Canadian and American composers including Mathieu Lussier, Paul Frehner, Eric Funk, Constantine Caravassilis, Lucas Oickle, Adam Scime and most recently, Chicago-based composer, Augusta Read Thomas. 

Her solo recordings have been recognized with awards including Best Classical Album 2020 (Vivaldi Concerti Volume I) and 2009 (Bacchanale with Nicholas McGegan and the Toronto Chamber Orchestra) from Just Plain Folks.. Her Canadian Concerto Project was short-listed for the 2014 Canadian Juno awards for best solo with large ensemble. Her most recent recording of Augusta Read Thomas’ aleatoric bebop concerto for bassoon and wind ensemble is on the 2025 BBC Music Magazine’s Orchestra Awards short list for the album, Terpsichore’s Box of Dreams.

A respected teacher, Nadina is the founder and president of The Council of Canadian Bassoonists, a nationally registered educational charity dedicated to the study and appreciation of the bassoon and bassoonists in Canada. She has taught at the University of Toronto, McGill University, Frediona State University and Wilfrid Laurier University. Nadina gives masterclasses throughout Canada and the US.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Nadina began the bassoon in the band programmes of Prince George, B.C. and was particularly inspired and encouraged by her wonderful high school band teacher, Garry Hartley.

Nadina is the author of Solitary Refinement, Chromatics, Chords and Scales, Concepts for the Committed Bassoonist published by Friesen Press 2020. Her art and creativity books include Book of Birds (Friesen Press, 2023), and most recently, Colour Your Bassoon (Independent, 2025).