Shinyee Na plays second bassoon with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. She is in her third season with the company.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE BASSOON
The bassoon (pronounced bah-soon) is a double-reed bass woodwind instrument. A double-reed instrument is one that the player blows into like a flattened straw and each side vibrates against each other. With a single reed, one side of the reed vibrates against the mouthpiece. Tall like a stove pipe, it is in the oboe family with the clarinet and measures about four feet. The bassoon makes a low-pitched, nasal sound.
WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT YOUR POSITION?
“The principal bassoon usually plays to higher voices, a lot of times with solos. The second bassoon provides the bass, often a counter melody to what the other instruments are doing.”
WHY CHOOSE THE BASSOON?
“I didn’t pick the bassoon. My mother picked it. It took me a while to learn to like it, but I think it’s the right instrument for me now. You know how some people will pick the pretty, cute little dogs. Then there will be the little mutt that nobody wants and I will be the one to pick it up. I think it’s a little like that. The bassoon is sort of the odd instrument; it’s like the viola. They always make fun of the viola. Somehow it just clicks with me. With the bassoon, the color of the sound has many possibilities. You can really play with it and portray a lot of different emotions. The flute generally plays very high [notes] and double bass [contrabassoon] plays very low. The bassoon is right in the middle on the lower side. The different range of the instrument gives you different kind of colors. I think it makes it very versatile.”
WHAT’S THE DOWNSIDE?
“The most challenging thing about playing the bassoon is carrying it around all the time because it’s really heavy.”
DO YOU HAVE A CART?
“I wish. I should get one. Maybe a backpack. Playing the second bassoon, what’s tricky is you don’t always get the melody line. A lot of times you have the counter melody and you have the bass line. To learn to support whoever has the melody is not an easy task. You have to be very sensitive to what other people are doing. And you must make sure you always play at the correct dynamic [volume] level so you don’t overpower other people or you don’t play too soft and not provide enough support.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF JACKSONVILLE?
“I think the woodwind section is really very good. The people are very friendly, which is good for a new person. It’s providing me with a lot of good experience. We’re going through a lot of repertories. It’s not something I’m really trained to do but all the orchestras in the States do them. Now it’s my time to learn to do them properly.”
HOW DID YOU BECOME A PLAYER?
“When I got out of school, there were advertisements for various openings. I took a few auditions and ended up winning this one. I thought this was the perfect opportunity for a first job.”
WHERE ELSE DID SHE AUDITION?
Na placed quite well with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Taipei National Symphony Orchestra. “For the one in Taipei, I only took the audition because my mother was persuading me to. I ended up winning, but after one week of playing with them, I turned it down and came back to the States. The music scene in Taipei is more about politics than music-making and I think I should play music. I was not sure I wanted to be involved. Being a new person there, I didn’t feel quite welcome. If I stayed, it probably would have been OK but it probably would have ended up killing every enjoyable aspect in music for me.”
BEFORE JSO
Prior to graduating from college, Na was a bassoon fellow at Tanglewood Music Center. Later, she played principal bassoon for the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and the New England Conservatory Honors Orchestra. She also filled in as a substitute for the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the late 1990s.
WHERE DID she GO TO SCHOOL?
Na earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree of music from Boston University.
MELTING POT
Born in Taiwan, her father is Siberian and her mother is Chinese.
WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO AMERICA?
“I left when I was 14. The board of education in Taiwan had this competition for student scholarships. I entered and won so they sent me out to study.”
WHAT DRAWS YOU TO MUSIC?
“Ever since I was little, I had to give myself two or three tasks to do at a time or I didn’t know what to do with myself. My mother sent me to take piano lessons. That was one thing that had the whole of my concentration. When you make music with 100 other people on stage, it’s a unique experience. Sharing that one moment of great music-making is very exciting to me.”
WHO WAS YOUR MAIN INFLUENCE?
“My father. He can’t even sing do-ra-me in tune but he loves everything artistic. My college teachers really inspired me to become a musician, too.”
ANY OUTSIDE GROUPS YOU TAKE PART IN?
“The Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont takes seven weeks out of the summer. It’s all chamber music. People like Yo-Yo Ma, Hillary Hahn and major wind players perform there. I get to play with them and learn from them.”
NEWLYWED
Na exchanged vows in May with conductor Christoph Mueller. He conducts the Berlin chamber ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonics and the Mahler Orchestra based in Vienna. The couple reside in San Marco. “He’s all over Europe so we don’t see each other very often, but we’re working on it.”
WHAT HOBBIES DO YOU HAVE?
“I minored in pottery but, at the moment, I’m not doing anything with it. It’s very time-consuming and I don’t have enough space but soon, I think. I spend a lot of time on the phone. I have a lot of friends all over the world.” She also enjoys reading mystery novels and dining on Chinese food. To relax, she makes reeds for her instrument.
— by Monica Chamness