Meet Jacqueline Wilson | Bassoonist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jacqueline Wilson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jacqueline, why did you pursue a creative career?
I saw an artistic career as an opportunity to build relationships with others. As a performer who who largely interprets the compositions of others, I can use programming as a method with which to teach my audience about the way I see the world and/or the things that are important to me. Specifically, within Classical music, I spend the majority of my time elevating music featuring underrepresented perspectives and lived experiences with a special focus on collaborating with and performing the works of Indigenous composers. As a Yakama person, this approach allows me to contextualize the relationship between what I do (play the bassoon), with who I am culturally to more effectively connect with my audience, emphasize a uniquely decolonial approach, promote Indigenous self-representation, and combat monolithic portrayals of Indigeneity. In other words, I have carved out a musical space for myself that only I can fill. As a teacher, I am able to use my experience to help guide other young musicians in identifying their own point-of-view and empower them to build a career that is uniquely their own as well. As a podcast host, I am able to model small-business ownership, collaborative friendship, and advance the conversations that I think are important within my field.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I was a band kid. I just really loved the consistency that music offered. You got to be with the same teacher year after year, you got to be with the same classmates year after year, and you all got to build some thing together overtime. Initially, I thought I wanted to be a band director, but as I got into college, I saw higher education as an opportunity to serve as the mentor that I wanted to be in a more specific way that also allowed me to grow as an artist and focus on the bassoon. College was not easy for me initially. As a first generation college student, there was a lot of adjusting. Everything was very different for me. I missed home, and everything felt different at first. Eventually, I adjusted and began to thrive, and really begin to love the opportunity to create things with other people over time. This has taught me the importance of finding your community and building relationships with our collaborators and with our audiences. I think what sets me apart from others is that my art specifically sets these relationships at the center of its focus. With my podcast, we specifically try to center friendship and build community with our listeners. In my performances, I build continuous relationships with Native American composers by collaborating with them to assert my cultural identity in a way that is relevant to who I am as an artist. I build relationships with my audiences by sharing vulnerably of myself with them.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am not from Los Angeles and have only been there twice, but my sister-in-law, Sarah Wilson, works at the Autry Museum of the American West and it is fabulous- highly recommend!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My dear friend and oboist Galit Kaunitz, is a close collaborator who has served as an important source of friendship, creativity, and strength throughout my career. Together we co-founded Double Reed Dish, a podcast for oboists, bassoonists, and the people who love them. Over the course of co-owning this small business together we have learned so much and built a thriving community of support within the double reed community through our listenership .Galit and I’s friendship places Shine Theory, the believe in a mutual investment in each other’s success, at its foundation. Together we have dreamed up projects and worked together to bring them to fruition. Most recently, we created a commission consortium of over 120 members to create four new works by young, living, diverse American composers- an initiative that also funded the recording of our first album together, All Are Welcome- which features the premiere recordings of our consortium pieces.

Website: wilsonbassoon.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jacquelinewilson3134

Other: doublereeddish.com