Samuel Rhoton

In 2017,  he served as Associate Principal Bassoon with the National Youth Orchestra of America as they toured Latin America under the direction of Maestra Marin Alsop. The tour began with a performance in Carnegie Hall and with subsequent appearances in Guadalajara, Mexico, Quito, Ecuador, and Bogotá, Colombia. Memorable performances as rotating principal in the Shepherd School of Music’s Symphony and Chamber orchestras, as well as guest performances with the Houston Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and The Opera in the Heights.

Samuel has participated in the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbra California, the Marrowstone Music Festival in Bellingham, Washington, and the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, North Carolina. Sam has soloed with the Tualatin Valley Symphony and the Oregon ProArte Chamber Orchestra playing the Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra by Carl Maria von Weber. While at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, he enjoyed his performances with his wind quintet, Diatomaceous. The ensemble has presented a wide range of works, including Elliot Carter’s Quintet, Jean Francaix’s Quintet No. 2, and Jean-Michel Damase’s  17 Variations for Wind Quintet. 

As an educator, Samuel serves as an adjunct professor of bassoon at George Fox, Linfield, and Pacific Universities. He served as the Teacher’s Assistant to Kathleen McLean while studying at Indiana University in 2021. He was able to design and teach a sixteen-week intensive course centered around reed making to a studio of twenty college students. In the summer of 2019, Samuel served as a bassoon faculty member at the Young Musicians and Artists Festival in Salem Oregon.

Samuel is a graduate of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He studied under the tutelage of the Lynette S. Autrey Professor of Bassoon, Benjamin Kamins. Before Rice, Sam studied with William Ludwig, Kathleen McLean, and Carin Miller. He has also extensively studied with the incomparable Ann Kosanovic-Brown, the first female bassoonist to play with the Berlin Philharmonic.