Winner, Astral Artists’ 2009 National Auditions
Heralded as a “bold, emergent, personality” by The Philadelphia Inquirer, bassoonist Harrison Hollingsworth is widely regarded as one of the premier wind players of his generation, and holds the principal bassoon chair of the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. He has also held the Eileen McManimen principal bassoon chair of Symphony in C, where he also served as program annotator and first violinist. He has also performed as principal bassoon with the Long Island Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Phantom of the Opera Orchestra, Gotham Chamber Opera, and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Hollingsworth is a winner of Astral Artists’ 2009 National Auditions. He gave his recital debut under Astral’s auspices, and appears on Astral’s series in chamber concerts in the 2012-2013 season. He has been concerto soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Symphony in C, the Clear Lake Symphony, and many others, and has been featured in recital on WHYY ARTS television series “On Stage at Curtis,” NPR’s syndicated radio show “From the Top,” and WHYY Radio’s “Showcase,” which broadcast the radio premiere of his brass choir composition Fanfare and Contrapunctus. His bassoon playing can also be heard on Arturo Ripstein’s film Las Razones del Corazón.
Mr. Hollingsworth pursues many musical activities. As a conductor, he has guest conducted on several subscription concerts for the NYCB Orchestra, and he holds the David Alan Miller Conducting Fellowship for the New York Youth Symphony, where he is Assistant Conductor. He conducts recording sessions at New York City’s Avatar Studios and serves as a clinician for various orchestras (most recently, the Westchester Area All-State Orchestra). An advocate for new music both on the podium and in the recital hall, he has premiered multiple new works for bassoon, including Teddy Abrams’ Bassoon Sonata, of which he is the dedicatee. He is also an original member of the Mimesis Ensemble (with whom he made his Kennedy Center conducting debut), and has taught bassoon and chamber music for the Chautauqua Music Festival. Also an avid fiddler, he plays with the Brooklyn String Band Union Street Preservation Society, which released its debut album in July 2011.
An enthusiastic chamber musician, Mr. Hollingsworth has appeared at the Kingston Music Festival and the Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival, and is a founding member of Reed5 and founding bassoonist/violinist of the Sixth Floor Trio, which inaugurated its own annual chamber music festival in partnership with Fairchild Gardens in Miami in March 2012. Sixth Floor Trio was also the recipient of a prestigious grant from the Knight Foundation to perform Random Acts of Culture across the United States during the 2011-2012 season.
Originally from Kingwood, Texas, Mr. Hollingsworth is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he held the Sheldon Bonovitz Fellowship and studied with both Bernard Garfield and Daniel Matsukawa, the retired and current principal bassoonists of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He received a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Mannes College for Music, under David Hayes. Under a grant from the Williamson Foundation for Music, he also studied orchestral conducting with Michael Jinbo at the Pierre Monteux School.
Updated: APRIL 2012
