Nancy Goeres
Principal Bassoon
Mr. & Mrs. William Genge and Mr. & Mrs. James E. Lee Chair
Principal Bassoonist Nancy Goeres joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1984. Prior to coming to Pittsburgh, Goeres held similar positions with the Florida Orchestra, the Caracas Philharmonic and the Cincinnati Symphony.
Goeres also serves on the faculties of Carnegie Mellon University and Boston University, and the music festivals of Aspen and Sarasota.
In addition to her appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Nancy Goeres has been a member of the All Star Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Schwartz, which produced a multi-disc set of recordings of major orchestral repertoire. She has also performed at leading festivals around the country including Tanglewood, Marlboro, La Jolla and Mainly Mozart festivals, New York's 92nd Street Y Series, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music in The Vineyards (CA) Philharmonic of the Americas, (Mexico City) Instrumental Verano, (Puebla, Mexico) and the Internationale Wolfegger Konzerte (Germany) Germany. She has also toured with Musicians from Marlboro.
Alan Fletcher's Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony, was premiered by Goeres and conducted by Manfred Honeck in 2011. She subsequently performed the concerto with the Aspen Chamber Symphony in summer 2012. Also written for her, was Andre Previn’s “Sonata for Bassoon”, and premiered by her with the composer at the 92nd Street Y in New York.
With Lorin Maazel and the Pittsburgh Symphony, Nancy Goeres premiered Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Bassoon Concerto, commissioned for her by the Pittsburgh Symphony. In addition to recording the Zwilich Concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Lorin Maazel on the New World label, she has subsequently performed it with the Chamber Symphony of the Aspen Music Festival, with the Greenwich Village Orchestra, and at a conference of the International Double Reed Society. In 2004, she also performed the concerto and conducted master classes in Cuba with the Havana Symphony. Other concerto performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra include: Music from the Floating World, by David Ludwig, Haydn's Sinfonia concertante, John Williams' bassoon concerto, The Five Sacred Trees, and Mozart, Vivaldi and Rossini Bassoon Concertos.
An active teacher, Nancy Goeres has given master classes and recitals in Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America and returns frequently to China. In the United States, she often works with the students of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, and, among others, has given classes at The Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, Fresno State University, and has served as an adjudicator for the Meg Quigley Vivaldi and the IDRS Gillet Competitions.
A native of Lodi, Wisconsin, Goeres’s principal teachers were Sherman Walt and Richard Lottridge. Goeres holds the Pittsburgh Symphony's Mr. & Mrs. William Genge and Mr. & Mrs. James E. Lee Principal Bassoon Chair. She has been a member of the board of directors of the Aspen Music Festival and also the Woodlands Foundation, whose mission is to enrich the lives of children and adults with disabilities.
