Sam Rhoton (Bassoon)

Samuel Rhoton is a 17-year old bassoonist who is deeply in love with classical music. From a young age, Sam has had the influence of classical music in his life, from watching cartoons with orchestral background music to his mother playing Mozart for him while he slept. Sam came to the Bassoon when his 6th grade band director requested he change from Trumpet to Bassoon, and it’s a choice he has not looked back from.
Since, Sam has been very fortunate to have wonderful opportunities to play his Bassoon. He has sat top chair in many prestigious groups such as: Salem All-City Honor Band, OSAA All-State Honor Orchestra, and All-Northwest Honor Band. He has also been fortunate enough to be able to be a member of Salem Youth Symphony Philharmonia and Symphony as well as the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, and many other chamber music groups notably with his Bassoon Quartet, “The Rubber Reeds,” and “Hamilton” Wood Wind Quartet. Over the past couple of years Sam has been able to participate in both Rocky Ridge Music Center Young Artist Seminar in Estes Park, Colorado, as well as Marrowstone Music Festival in Bellingham, Washington. Sam has won his district solo competition the past two years, and he has competed at state level, winning 2nd as a freshman and 1st as a sophomore. Sam has also been fortunate enough to be a featured member of the Salem Youth Symphony in 2013 as well as being featured on “On Deck with Young Musicians with Christa Wessel” on 89.9 FM. In 2014, Sam was also given the opportunity to perform the Weber Bassoon Concerto with the Tualitan Valley Symphony in an annual autumn concert.
As of now, Sam is a Junior at West Salem High School and sits 1st Chair in both Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra. He studies with Ann Kosanovic-Brown, a former member of the Berlin Philharmonic, as well as an avid teacher at OSU and Willamette University. Sam dreams big and hopes to attend the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
Sam loves the Weber Bassoon concerto and finds it to be one of his favorites. “I find the operatic gestures and motifs to be very ‘Bassoony.'” Sam says he can really get into this piece as it brings him back to the days that he would act in school musicals and plays by allowing him to assume the very different characters of each movement. He wants you to listen for themes of a “Pompous General returning from war to find his family missing” in the first movement, to a “Distraught lover, as the love of his life only lives through his memories,” and to finish “A Clown… who’s in a race with the orchestra as he tries bring a light-heartedness to the audience.” “The Weber Concerto is one of my favorites and the fact that I have received this opportunity to play it again, is a dream come true,” says Rhoton.