Joseph Grimmer

Appointed Fall 2017

Joseph Grimmer is Principal Bassoon of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra/Washington National Opera Orchestra and Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the University of Maryland. He also holds the Principal Bassoon positions with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California. He previously served as Principal Bassoon with the Jacksonville Symphony, was a member of  the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, was Acting Assistant Principal Bassoon with the Naples Philharmonic and spent six summers as Assistant Principal Bassoon with the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado. 

He has performed as Guest Principal Bassoon with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Miami City Ballet Orchestra, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, IRIS Orchestra, and Wolf Trap Orchestra, among others. He has also performed with the National Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, and Arizona Musicfest Orchestras. He has performed as a soloist with the IDRS Conference Orchestra in an  arrangement of Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy and the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra in David Ludwig’s Pictures from the Floating World. He has taught at the Shenandoah Conservatory, Howard University, Catholic University and the Miami Music Festival and presents masterclasses at music schools across the US and internationally. 

Grimmer was a fellow at the Lucerne, Aspen, and Sarasota Music Festivals and a prize winner at  the International Double Reed Society’s Young Artist Bassoon Competition in Birmingham,  England. He serves on the Executive Board of Washington DC’s Local 161-710 of the American  Federation of Musicians. Grimmer earned his Master of Music degree from Rice University’s  Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Benjamin Kamins. He also studied with  William Winstead at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, where he  received his Bachelor of Music degree.