Stephen Paulson
Stephen Paulson
Stephen Paulson joined the San Francisco Symphony as Principal Bassoonist in 1977 and made his SFS solo debut the following year in Vivaldi’s C major Bassoon Concerto. Since then, he has been a frequent soloist with the Orchestra, performing with conductors such as Kurt Masur, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christopher Hogwood, and Helmuth Rilling.
Mr. Paulson has served on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1978. He has been a guest artist and faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and Music in the Vineyards. He has also been a guest coach with the New World Symphony. In 1995 he was one of four SFS musicians chosen by Sir Georg Solti to play in Solti’s World Orchestra, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
Stephen Paulson graduated with honours from the Eastman School of Music. He studied bassoon with K. David Van Hoesen and Mordechai Rechtman and composition with Samuel Adler. From 1970 to 1977 he served as co-principal bassoonist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, he performed with the Rochester Philharmonic for four seasons, serving as principal bassoonist with that ensemble from 1968 to 1970. February 2016, Paulson received a stellar review following his performance of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony.
Stephen Paulson joined the San Francisco Symphony as Principal Bassoonist in 1977 and made his SFS solo debut the following year in Vivaldi’s C major Bassoon Concerto. Since then, he has been a frequent soloist with the Orchestra, performing with conductors such as Kurt Masur, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christopher Hogwood, and Helmuth Rilling.
Mr. Paulson has served on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1978. He has been a guest artist and faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and Music in the Vineyards. He has also been a guest coach with the New World Symphony. In 1995 he was one of four SFS musicians chosen by Sir Georg Solti to play in Solti’s World Orchestra, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
Stephen Paulson graduated with honours from the Eastman School of Music. He studied bassoon with K. David Van Hoesen and Mordechai Rechtman and composition with Samuel Adler. From 1970 to 1977 he served as co-principal bassoonist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, he performed with the Rochester Philharmonic for four seasons, serving as principal bassoonist with that ensemble from 1968 to 1970. February 2016, Paulson received a stellar review following his performance of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony.
“The unalloyed high point of the program, in any case, was the performance of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto, with Steve Paulson, the orchestra’s excellent longtime principal, as a suave and winningly refined soloist. This is a piece that doesn’t get played very often, in part because it’s early Mozart and can seem a little bland in the wrong hand.
Paulson, though, gave a virtuosic demonstration of just how wrong that glib assessment is – and he did it, paradoxically, by sheer understatement and insinuation. There were few fireworks as such in the performance, even though he raced nimbly through the elaborate passagework of the first movement, with its stuttery repeated notes, and through the delicately shaped solo stretches of the finale. Instead, Paulson seemed to sneak up on each melodic phrase and large formal paragraph, edging his way in and suddenly taking command of the material like some musical ninja. Then the solo would expand and blossom, enthralling you before you’d fully registered what had happened. And Paulson’s original cadenzas for all three movements were sweetly outlandish marvels.” – Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle