Janet Polk, Bassoon

Janet Polk, bassoon, is principal bassoonist of the Portland Symphony and the Vermont Symphony as well as Opera North and PORTopera. She has also performed with many of New England’s orchestras and traveled to Honduras through the Partners of the Americas. A committed chamber musician, she won prizes in the International Concert Artists Guild competition and John Knowles Paine competition, and performed at the prestigious Round Top Festival in Texas with the Block Ensemble. With the oboe, bassoon and piano trio, Sospiri, she has recorded a CD titled Trios of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Chamber music engagements have included the DaPonte Bach Festival, Sebago Long Lake Music Festival, Maine Mountain Chamber Music and the Radius Ensemble.Active as a soloist, she has  performed concertos with the Vermont Symphony including collaborations with Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, and Anthony McGill, Portland Symphony, Indian Hill Symphony, Dartmouth Symphony, UNH Orchestra, Northampton (Mass.) Chamber Orchestra, and Furman University Concert Band, and given recitals at New England colleges and universities. She has premiered the Concerto for Bassoon and Strings by Gwyneth Walker and Sonata for Bassoon and Piano by Christopher Kies. Both of these works were composed especially for her.In addition to her performing career, Ms. Polk teaches bassoon at the University of New Hampshire and   Dartmouth College. She lives with her musicologist husband, Keith, in Durham, NH.