Richard Svoboda

Richard Svoboda
bassoon

Richard Svoboda has been the principal bassoonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players since 1989. He is currently on the faculties of New England Conservatory of Music and the Tanglewood Music Center. He has also taught at the Sarasota Music Festival, the Grand Teton Orchestral Seminar, the Popkin-Glickman Bassoon Camp, and the Symphony School of America, and has given master classes throughout the world. Prior to his appointment to the BSO he performed for ten seasons as principal bassoonist of the Jacksonville Symphony, and studied with William Winstead, George Berry and Gary Echols.

Mr. Svoboda has appeared numerous times with chamber ensembles, as an orchestral soloist, and in recital. Among his solo appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra have been performances of John Williams's bassoon concerto Five Sacred Trees with the composer conducting, as well as the Weber Concerto for Bassoon under the baton of Seiji Ozawa. In October of 2007 he premiered Michael Gandolfi's Concerto for Bassoon with Yoichi Udagawa and the Melrose Symphony Orchestra.

A Nebraska native, Mr. Svoboda graduated with High Distinction from the University of Nebraska where he received a Bachelor of Music in Education degree. He is married and has four daughters.

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Performances

Boston ConNECtion: Celebrating BMOP's 10th season at NEC
Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory | January 25, 2008
Concert Details

News and Press

[Concert Review] BMOP explores many faces of modern music
Friday’s wide-ranging Boston Modern Orchestra Project concert demonstrated how unhelpfully vague the umbrella term “modern music” can be. Some New England Conservatory link was the only correspondence among the disparate works, gathered under the title “Boston ConNECtion” (and performed under Jordan Hall’s architecturally ill-mannered “New England Conservatory” signboard, which continues to intrude on the season’s concert experience like a dinner-time telemarketer).
The Boston Globe Full review
[Concert Review] Country for old men
BMOP has become so popular, you have to look hard in the program to find its full name: Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Founder Gil Rose and his outstanding ensemble celebrated their 10th season at the New England Conservatory on Friday with their annual concert devoted to Boston composers. An enthusiastic and diverse audience (diverse especially in age) cheered, whistled, and hooted its approval for pieces, including two world premieres, by five composers also diverse in age. All the pieces were lively and (unlike Gerontius) fun.
Full review

 

Michael Gandolfi's Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra also carries neoclassic overtones, but the fascination was in how the simplest ideas a descending third, a dotted rhythm beget abundant rhetorical variety.

— The Boston Globe Full review