Jane Gower
Historical Bassoon
Jane received her Bachelor of Music, with High Distinction, from the Canberra School of Music in 1992. Subsequently, she was awarded a Netherlands Government Scholarship and Queens Trust grant for study of historical bassoon at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands. Since then she has embarked upon a busy performance career throughout Europe, Australia and America, 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 and San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque. In 2005 she was appointed principal bassoonist of Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s acclaimed orchestras, the English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.
In 1999 she founded the quartet for classical bassoon and strings island, which has just released its third CD. Other current chamber music projects feature concert tours with harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen and recorder player Genevieve Lacey, and trio concerts with Mortensen and baroque violinist John Holloway, with whom she has recorded for the prestigious ECM label. In collaboration with Torbreck Vintners she is launching a chamber music series Barossa Klassik in the Barossa Valley in January 2010. She gives regular masterclasses around the world and since 2007 has lectured 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 recently with Concerto Copenhagen, Les Agrémens, Sirius Ensemble and The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (in 2005 and 2008). In 2002 she recorded for CD Mozart's bassoon concerto with Anima Eterna, and her cadenzas and performance practice notes for this concerto are published by Bärenreiter. Her latest solo recording is of three bassoon concertos of Franz Danzi, with the Orchester von Damals und Heute, Germany.