Today we’re listening to Rebekah Heller, an American bassoonist, composer, and conductor based in New York. She started playing bassoon at age 9, choosing the instrument in large part because it had relatively few players.1 She studied at the Oberlin Conservatory and joined the International Contemporary Ensemble in 2008, eventually putting out her debut solo LP, 100 Names, in 2013. Her focus tends to be on living composers, elevating overlooked ones. Her latest record from Friday, Righteous Rage, is a series of bassoon choir adaptations of music by Julius Eastman, Steve Reich, Jessie Cox, Fay Victor, and Brittany J. Green. She records all the tracks herself, though her adaptations are meant to expand the repertoire available to bassoon ensemble. The record especially highlights the percussive quality of the instrument and its capacity for entrancing pulsations.
Righteous Rage - Rebekah Heller (60m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
100 Rooms - Rebekah Heller (50m, some vocals on tracks 4 and 6)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
We wish you a great start to your week.
Beneath the twisty difficulty is a warm blanket. Or the bassoon might be triggering nostalgia for the craggy, proggy music I have known. It's a good umbrella against today's gray sky.