See You at the Market: Dana Jessen

In the lead-up to The Market, Doek Festival 2019, we’ll be regularly posting small profiles of those involved: See you at The Market.
Second in the series See You at The Market: Dana Jessen
Praised for her diverse talents, bassoonist Dana Jessen is in high demand as a soloist, chamber musician, improviser and new music specialist. Her strong ambitions to explore free jazz and creative improvisation have led to performances throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States with European and North American improvisers.

Dana’s tireless commitment to expand the modern bassoon repertoire through collaborations with composers from around the globe has led to dozens of new solo, chamber, and electro-acoustic works, including Rushes, an hour-long composition for seven bassoons. Dana is currently the Director of Professional Development and Associate Professor of Contemporary Music and Improvisation at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the US.

Dana has strong ties to the Netherlands. She completed a masters in Improvisation from the Artez Hogeschool voor de Kunsten and was artist in residence at STEIM in Amsterdam. In fact she lived in Amsterdam for three years as the recipient of a 2009-2011 HSP Huygens Fellowship and 2008-2009 J. William Fulbright Fellowship, researching contemporary and improvised music. During this period she was active in the improvised music scene playing with such locals as Wilbert de Joode, Michael Vatcher, Michael Moore, Ab Baars and Anne La Berge. We’re happy to welcome her back to Amsterdam for The Market.