A Performance Guide to Three Contemporary Solo Bassoon Works by Tonia Ko, Xinyan Li, and Tôn-Thât Tiêt with Studio Recordings

Repertoire for solo bassoon is becoming more common as music advances and evolves. There is a vast array of works for solo bassoon; however, only a small percentage of those are by composers from an underrepresented community, with an even smaller percentage written by composers with East Asian or Southeast Asian heritage. Furthermore, these works have little to no high-quality studio recordings. Additionally, these works often include contemporary techniques such as multiphonics, difficult tremolos, flutter tonguing, pitch bends, and glissandi, among others. This adds another layer of inaccessibility for those bassoonists who are unfamiliar with how to perform these techniques and therefore may be afraid to “take the plunge” into contemporary works that utilize them. I have created performance guides for Tilt by Tonia Ko, Legend of the Sea by Xinyan Li, and Jeu des Cinq Éléments II by Tôn-Thât Tiêt, in hopes of promoting and raising the accessibility of works by living composers with East Asian and Southeast Asian backgrounds.