2022 UNH Double Reed Day 

Saturday, January 22, 2022
10:30-4:30 PM
Paul Creative Arts Center

Find registration, schedule and vendor info below.

Updated UNH COVID-19 policies and requirements will be posted here. At this time, all are required to mask when inside a UNH building and masks and bell covers are required.Social distancing will be observed whenever possible. 

Please bring your own music stand and reed tools if you own them.  Hand sanitizer and wipes are available throughout the building.

Bassoonists can attend in-person or on-line.  All oboe classes will be virtual.  $25 Registration fee covers all in-person events and those classes that are listed as being virtual. Links to virtual media will be sent the week of the event to those who have registered.  In the case of an extreme weather event or University closure, Double Reed Day will be all virtual.

2022 Guest Artists

Leslie Ross: bassoon

Showcasing her many talents, Leslie Ross will give a presentation on historic bassoon making and her work on the modern bassoon in the realm of composing and multiphonics. 

Leslie Ross is a bassoon maker, musician, composer and sound artist. Leslie’s interest in instrument building began in 9th grade on the day she was allowed to bring her bassoon home for the first time. She promptly disassembled it and had to take the next day off from school to put it back together. Early in her life, her explorations as musician and maker were connected to the early music movement, which, still in its formative stages in the late 70’s, advocated not just returning to early period treatises but to rediscovering period instruments–using the early instruments themselves (as compared to modern instruments) to teach and inform us how to play and interpret music of the time.

While still involved in early music and with the same spirit of exploration, Leslie immersed herself in the free improv scene of downtown NYC in the mid 80’s. Accompanying her shift to experimental music, her love of working with materials and building instruments opened up into explorations of invented instruments and sound installations.

Meghan Woodard: oboe, English horn, Baroque oboe

Dr. Meghan Woodard: Oboe, Baroque Oboe, English Horn
Oboe Masterclass: Interpreting Orchestral Excerpts through the Lens of Recorded History 

 Over one hundred years of recorded history reveals that performance practice is continually evolving as musical tastes change. In researching her dissertation, “On the Record: Interpreting Recorded Orchestral Excerpts for the Oboe, 1910-2016,” Meghan Woodard discovered hundreds of unique and nearly forgotten interpretations of the iconic orchestral oboe solos from Brahms’ Violin Concerto, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin. Join Meghan for this special masterclass as we together explore historically-informed interpretations of these cherished oboe solos. 

Brahms Violin Concerto: Mvt 2. mm3-32  / Beethoven 5^th Symphony: Mvt. 1 mm254 through cadenza / Ravel le Tombeau de Couperin: 1.Prelude 

Interested performers (Either Live or Virtually) please contact Margaret Herlehy at mherlehy@unh.edu

In addition to teaching Meghan is a sought-after orchestral and chamber musician on oboe, English horn, and Baroque oboe. She regularly performs with the Reading Symphony Orchestra, Symphony in C, the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, and is a member of  Revolution Winds—an internationally-performing woodwind quintet known for musical activism. Meghan holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Oboe Performance from Temple University.  

The University of New Hampshire’s Double Reed Day (UNH DR DAY) is a day-long event held each January for double-reed players of all ages and skill levels. Over 100 participants come each year sometimes braving snow storms, ice storms, power outages and floods both outside AND inside. More often than not, however, the sun does shine on this day. Janet Polk, UNH bassoon instructor and Margaret Herlehy, UNH oboe instructor organize this event with the able assistance of the music service fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi.

According to Justin Miller, president of Miller Marketing and a long-time vendor at this event, UNH DR DAY is one of the largest and longest-running Bassoon Day/DR DAY in the United States.

UNH DR DAY began as Bassoon Day. In 1993, Alan Fox of Fox Products Corporation, suggested to Janet Polk she start a bassoon day at UNH. She decided to take on the challenge and asked Mr. Fox if he would be her first guest. So, in January 1994, the first annual Bassoon Day took place. In January 1999, the oboes joined in the fun and the event became known as Double Reed Day.

New! Sospiri Listening Room
Click below to enjoy performances from the UNH Double Reed Day archives.