matthew huff
Dr. Matthew Huff is the Adjunct Bassoon Professor at Auburn University, where he teaches aspiring bassoonists, equipping them for success as players. He earned a DMA from the University of Alabama and a master’s degree in bassoon performance from Louisiana State University. Dr. Huff completed a double major in bassoon performance and music education at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia. He is privileged to have studied with wonderful teachers and mentors, including Jenny Mann, Darrell Hale and Amy Pollard. Dr. Huff is an active orchestral musician. Currently, he is the second bassoonist with the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. He regularly performs locally and in regional orchestras, in addition to appearances as a substitute bassoonist with the Tuscaloosa Symphony. Recently, he collaborated on the commission of Modern Dinosaur by highly acclaimed, contemporary composer Martin Van K;ompenberg. As a strong supporter of music for all ages, Dr. Huff participates in Kids’ Orchestra, which brings live music to elementary school children, and other outreach initiatives. Dr. Huff maintains a private bassoon studio sharing his love of music and the bassoon with young players, giving them a solid musical foundation. Dr. Huff’s thesis Stress Velopharyngeal Incompetence delves into and sheds light on one of various physical problems that present challenges for wind players.
RUTH SHELLY UNGER
Shelly Unger is a freelance bassoonist and contrabassoonist as well as an artist affiliate bassoon instructor at Emory University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, master’s degree from Rice University Shepherd School of Music and DMA from the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Her major teachers include Sidney Rosenberg, Benjamin Kamins, Bernard H. Garfield as well as longtime mentor/colleague Carl Nitchie, retired Atlanta Symphony Orchestra principal bassoonist. Dr. Unger is the founding director of Summer Bassoon Extravaganza. She has presented and performed at multiple International Double Reed Society Conferences, including a performance of Bernard Garfield’s second quartet. She served as Director of the 2016 IDRS Teen Camp: Double Reeds Rock! Dr. Unger plays in metro Atlanta, with the Augusta Symphony Orchestra, and regional orchestras throughout the Southeast. Dr. Unger maintains a large private studio. Her students have received scholarships to prestigious music schools and conservatories, and several have won the From the Top Kent Cooke Award, giving them national exposure playing live on NPR as well as a $10,000 scholarship. In 2004-05 she was visiting professor of bassoon at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she played with the Missouri Quintet. She has performed in South Korea, Lithuania, Taiwan and Israel. She plays a Moosmann bassoon.
