Peter Kolkay

Called “stunningly virtuosic” by The New York Times and “superb” by the The Washington Post, Peter Kolkay is the only bassoonist to be awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition. He is an Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a member of the IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tenn. Mr. Kolkay is Associate Professor of Bassoon at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and has been named a Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow for 2015-17.

Mr. Kolkay’s recent seasons have included solo recitals at BargeMusic, Wolf Trap, Merkin Hall, and the Teatro Nacional in Panama City; concerto appearances with the South Carolina, Rochester, and Westchester Philharmonics; and chamber music engagements at Music@Menlo, the Spoleto USA Festival, and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival.

Mr. Kolkay actively engages with composers in the creation of new works and has premiered concertos by Harold Meltzer and Joan Tower, as well as solo and chamber works by Judah Adashi, Gordon Beeferman, Elliott Carter, Katherine Hoover, Tania León, Russell Platt,
John Fitz Rogers, and Charles Wuorinen. His debut solo CD, titled BassoonMusic spotlights works by 21st-century American composers. During the 2018-19 season he will premiere a quintet for bassoon and strings by Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Kolkay earned a doctorate from Yale University as a student of Frank Morelli and a master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with John Hunt and Jean Barr. A native of Naperville, Ill., Kolkay holds a bachelor’s degree from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. where he studied with Monte Perkins. He calls downtown Nashville home, and his other interests include travel, modern and contemporary art, and old mystery novels.