UGA Bassoon and Oboe Symposium

Register Online 

Join us for the 2026 University of Georgia Double Reed Symposium on Sunday, March 1, 2026!  We will have a wonderful day full of classes, performances, vendors, and more. Our guest artists this year are Elizabeth Starr Masoudnia, solo English hornist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and faculty at Temple University; and Adrian Morejon, principal bassoonist of the IRIS orchestra, Dorian Wind Quintet, and Talea Ensemble, and faculty at the Mannes School of Music at the New School.

In addition to master classes with our guest artists and resident UGA faculty members, students will also be able to attend reed class or other elective classes, attend the faculty artist recital, and perform with the symposium double reed ensemble. 

We will have a separate master class for beginning students and junior high school students to work on issues unique to starting bassoon and oboe. Students will be able to try out instruments and purchase cane, reeds, instruments, and other accessories from our fantastic double reed vendors.

There will be several spots available for students to play in the guest artist and UGA faculty master classes and receive feedback and performance suggestions. Register early to reserve a spot!

Registration is available online with a credit card. The cost of $75 covers attendance, lunch for participants, and symposium t-shirt. Registration is due by Friday, February 14th in order to secure lunch and a tote. (Late registration will be accepted, but shirts at that point are not guaranteed.)

All events will be held at the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the address listed below. Parents are welcome for the day’s events, but we cannot provide food for parents.

Any questions or concerns can be directed to Dr. Messich (oboe) at rmessich@uga.edu or Dr. Pollard (bassoon) at amypollard@uga.edu. We look forward to seeing you in March!

UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music
250 River Road
Athens, GA 30602

 

Symposium Faculty Bios

Amy Pollard is the Professor of Bassoon and Associate Director for Performance at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia. She formerly served as Lecturer of Bassoon at Baylor University and has also been on faculty at the University of Dayton and the Cincinnati School for the Creative and Performing Arts. During the summer she teaches at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival and has been on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Center Advanced Bassoon Institute, the UGA Study Abroad program in Alessandria, Italy, the Saarburg Music Festival in Saarburg, Germany, and the Atlanta Chamber Music Festival. She has taught master classes at conservatories and universities throughout the United States and internationally as well as serving as a guest artist for numerous double reed festivals and clinics.  

Pollard holds positions as principal bassoon with the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra and second bassoon with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. She is an active freelance performer and frequently performs with orchestras throughout the Southeast and beyond. Pollard also serves on the administrative board for the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Symposium as part of the Competition Committee. 

Pollard has presented solo recitals at venues across the country and internationally and has performed as a soloist with the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and Wind Symphony as well as with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Chamber Players. An avid chamber musician, she has performed at venues throughout the country and also in Ireland, Belgium, Argentina, Italy, and Germany, and Thailand with such groups as the Georgia Woodwind Quintet, the Baylor University Woodwind Quintet, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Woodwind Quintet, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Chamber Players. Her bassoon-percussion duo, Col Legno and her bassoon duo, Dueaux, have performed recitals and presented master classes at numerous venues throughout the country. 

Pollard’s debut solo album, Ruminations: Bassoon Works of Eugène Bozza, and the Georgia Woodwind Quintet’s CD Chroma were both released by Mark Records and are available on iTunes.   

Pollard received her Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Louisiana State University, studying with William Winstead and William Ludwig. 

 

 

Reid Messich is Professor of Oboe at the University of Georgia, where he is a member of the Georgia Woodwind Quintet. He also serves as Co-Principal Oboist of Memphis’s IRIS Orchestra/IRIS Collective, under Maestro Michael Stern, and as Principal Oboist of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, under Maestro John Morris Russell. Each summer, he teaches oboe and woodwind literature at the MasterWorks Music Festival, hosted at Liberty University.

An in-demand performer, Messich maintains an active national and international career. He has appeared as a recitalist and guest artist at the International Double Reed Society on numerous occasions and has presented recitals and lectures at music institutes and universities around the world. Under the direction of Joseph Silverstein, he toured Japan with the Curtis Chamber Symphony, and in 2017, he performed and taught at the Harbin Summer Music Festival in China. He has also served as guest principal oboist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, Augusta Symphony, and Greenville Symphony. His students have gone on to hold positions in premier ensembles, including the Cleveland Orchestra, United States Navy Band, United States Coast Guard Band, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.

Messich’s recordings include Chroma with the Georgia Woodwind Quintet (Mark Masters label), available on iTunes, and Bozza’s Suite brève en trio. In 2016, he gave the world premiere and served as the recording soloist for Christopher Stark’s Velocity Meadows for solo oboe, wind ensemble, and electronics.

Messich earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Richard Woodhams, and both his Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees from Florida State University, studying with Dr. Eric Ohlsson. He performs on a Yamaha YOB-841 oboe. Outside of music, Messich enjoys weightlifting, focusing on physical health, and spending time with his wife, Kaitlin, and daughter, Lowry—especially their trips to Disney.

 

Guest Artist Bios


Elizabeth Starr Masoudnia, solo English hornist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, since 1995, has toured the globe with the Orchestra to wide critical acclaim with many of the world’s finest conductors. A passionate advocate for the English horn, she has premiered many pieces written expressly for her including English horn concertos by Behzad Ranjbaran and Nicholas Maw and English horn chamber music by David Ludwig and Stephen Cohn. She recently released an album for English horn alone, “English Horn Expressions”, that features several new commissions for the instrument. She is in the process of commissioning works for English horn and strings that will culminate in a recital with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in the spring of 2027.

A Philadelphia native, Ms. Masoudnia graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with John de Lancie, former principal oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra and former president of Curtis. Prior to that, she studied with the acclaimed oboist and English hornist, Louis Rosenblatt, her  predecessor in the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Ms. Masoudnia was a participant in the Marlboro Music Festival and played oboe concertos with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia (now the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia) and the New York Symphonic Ensemble. In addition, she was the solo English hornist of the Minnesota Orchestra for 7 years and is a featured artist on an album of Beethoven and Triebensee trios along with her Curtis oboe colleagues Marilyn Zupnick and Kathryn Greenbank. (see link) https://g.co/kgs/s1FNUax

Ms. Masoudnia is on the faculty of Temple University and the Philadelphia International Music Festival where she teaches oboe and English horn and coaches chamber music. In addition, she has given English horn masterclasses and  private English horn lessons at the Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory.

 


Praised by the New York Times for his "teeming energy" and "precise control," bassoonist Adrian Morejon has established himself as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and arts leader. As a soloist, Morejon has appeared throughout North America and Europe with the Talea Ensemble, IRIS Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and the Miami Symphony. An active chamber musician, he is a member of the Dorian Wind Quintet and Talea Ensemble, and has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Boston Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Northwest, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival and others. Morejon is a member of Orchestra Lumos and has performed with several ensembles such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He was a recipient of the Theodore Presser Foundation Grant, 2nd prize of the Fox-Gillet International Competition, and a shared top prize at the Moscow Conservatory International Competition. An alum of the Curtis Institute and Yale School of Music, Morejon is currently on faculty at the Mannes School of Music at the New School. He is also the Executive Director of the Talea Ensemble and the Composers Conference.