jane gower
Bassoon
As a specialist on historical bassoon, Jane Gower performs extensively throughout Europe, the United States and Australia. Jane received her Bachelor of Music, with High Distinction, from the Canberra School of Music in 1992. Subsequently, she was awarded both a Netherlands Government Scholarship and Queens Trust grant for study of historical bassoon at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands, and completed her performance diploma in early music in 1996. Since then she has embarked upon a busy performance career, appearing as principal bassoonist with orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Sir Simon Rattle), Freiburger Barockorchester, Les Arts Florissants, The Academy of Ancient Music, Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco and La Petite Bande. In 2005 she was appointed principal bassoonist of both Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s acclaimed orchestras, the English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.
In 2005 Jane was Musical Director of the Barossa Music Festival, South Australia, and in 2010 directed the first season of Barossa Klassik at Torbreck Vintners. Besides island, current chamber music projects feature concert tours with harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen and recorder player Genevieve Lacey, and trio concerts with Mortensen and violinist John Holloway, with whom she has recorded for the prestigious ECM label. She gives regular lectures and masterclasses and since 2007 has been a Professor at the Royal College of Music, London.
With a growing collection of original instruments on which she also performs, Jane is in increasing demand as a soloist on the historical bassoon and has appeared with The Australian Chamber Orchestra, Les Agrémens, Sirius Ensemble, the Slovenian Philharmonic Strings, The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra in 2005 and 2008, and most recently in London's Wigmore Hall with Florilegium. In 2002 she recorded for CD Mozart's bassoon concerto with Anima Eterna and her cadenzas and performance practice notes for this concerto were published in 2003 by Bärenreiter. Her latest solo recording is of three bassoon concertos of Franz Danzi, with the Orchester von Damals und Heute. Jane will tour as a soloist with the Danish baroque orchestra Concerto Copenhagen for Musica Viva Australia in June-July 2011.
