She can’t explain exactly why she wanted to play the bassoon – usually not a first choice for elementary school musicians – but Dana Jessen knew that was the woodwind instrument for her.
“I was one of those fifth graders who wanted to be different from everyone else,” she says. “So I’m not sure how I figured that one out, but I pointed to a picture on a page.”
Fortunately her parents, both classical music advocates, fully supported her, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, boasted a well-funded public school system. Her local school owned a bassoon for her to play and had a great teacher who mentored her through high school. Dana also studied ballet growing up, but she realized classical music was something she was more dedicated to pursuing. She also thoroughly enjoyed the community of musicians surrounding her.
Dana went to Michigan State University to study with Barrick Stees, but when he took a position with The Cleveland Orchestra, she decided to transfer to Louisiana State University to study with Bill Ludwig, known as a phenomenal pedagogue. At LSU, she gained more exposure to contemporary music, but she still wasn’t finding much contemporary, improvisational or experimental music for bassoon, which she was becoming increasingly drawn to as a musician.
“I found myself trying to figure out how bassoon could fit within contemporary and improvised practices since it doesn’t have much of a history in those areas,” she recalls.
From 2005 to 2007, Dana attended graduate school to earn a M.M. in Bassoon Performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston. She began to receive more exposure to the dynamic music she sought, especially through the school’s Contemporary Improvisation program (now known as Contemporary Musical Arts). Still, she wrestled with an exact route to pursue as a professional musician since she wanted something more than playing bassoon in an orchestra.
After graduate school, Dana moved to the Netherlands as a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship (2008-09) to study with Dutch bassoonist Alban Wesly, who plays with the Calefax Reed Quintet and MusikFabrik Ensemble. As she became increasingly involved in the improvised music scene in Amsterdam, she went on to earn a M.M. in New Dutch Swing from the Artez Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Arnhem, Netherlands, as the recipient of a Huygens Fellowship.
“I was doing so much improvisation during that time and developing what my musical language was,” Dana explains. “It was starting to inform some of the compositions that people were creating for me, using the improvisational techniques that I was developing as my musical language.”
Dana then relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, where she performed with several ensembles, including the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. She has presented dozens of world premiere performances throughout North America and Europe with the Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Dal Niente, Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra, S.E.M. Ensemble and the Amsterdam Contemporary Ensemble. While in San Francisco, Dana also co-founded Splinter Reeds, the West Coast’s first reed quintet whose musicians all share a passion for new music.
“It takes a very special kind of resilience to pursue something so rarefied, so precarious, and willfully carve out an even more esoteric corner within that pursuit,” says oboist Kyle Bruckmann, fellow member of Splintered Reeds. “Dana has done that willfully, consistently, open-heartedly – and with gloriously creative results – throughout her career. I’d envy her if it weren’t for the fact that I get to benefit as her colleague and friend!”
In 2013, Dana moved to Oberlin, where she currently serves as Associate Professor of Contemporary Music and Improvisation at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Hailed as a “bassoon virtuoso” (Chicago Reader), Dana remains in high demand as a soloist, chamber musician, improviser and new music specialist. Dana remains committed to pushing into novel realms of music for the bassoon and discovering new sounds.
“That’s my stubbornness – that I don’t want to accept there is an end limit to the instrument,” she declares. “It’s such an expansive-sounding instrument that lends itself well to contemporary, improvised, and electroacoustic music.”
As for winning a Cleveland Arts Prize, Dana says: “I feel incredibly grateful to the organization for honoring all that I do. It’s not an easy industry to live in, so it feels validating to have my practice seen in this way.”