Nate Helgeson

BASSOON

Nate Helgeson is one of the West Coast’s leading specialists in historical bassoons. He appears frequently as soloist with period instrument orchestras such as Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, and Mercury Chamber Orchestra. Nate can be heard on recordings by Apollo’s Fire, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Pacific MusicWorks, and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra. Beginning in 2018, he has performed works of Rossini and Bellini on period instruments as part of Teatro Nuovo, a festival in New York exploring 19th century bel canto sounds and performance practices on the opera stage. He is on faculty at the Bozeman Baroque Performance Workshop, and was professor of bassoon at the University of Oregon during the 2019/20 school year.

Nate studied modern bassoon with Steve Vacchi and Richard Svoboda before taking up the baroque bassoon, continuing his studies with Dominic Teresi at the Juilliard School. He lives in Salem, Oregon with his wife, Annabeth Shirley, cellist and whole human being in her own right.