Waterhouse Bassoon Day 2026, 19 April
January 9th, 2026
Waterhouse Bassoon Day 2026 - Sunday 19 April
We are pleased to announce that the Waterhouse Bassoon Day 2026 is taking place on Sunday 19 April 2026 in the usual venue in Gloucestershire, UK.
Elisabeth Waterhouse has kindly asked me, Oliver Ludlow, to organise the 2026 day following the successful days in 2024 and 2025. As usual, Jim Kopp and Mathew Dart, as joint curators of the Waterhouse Bassoon Collection, will be advising during the planning of the event and supporting the event on the day.
The Waterhouse Bassoon Collection, acquired by the late William Waterhouse in his travels around Europe over many decades, is undoubtedly the foremost private collection of bassoons in the UK and possibly anywhere in the world, containing bassoons from the baroque era through to the mid-twentieth century, many of them from the most notable makers of their period.
With an outstanding selection of internationally-renowned speakers, including those flying in from the USA and Poland especially for this event, this will be the most exciting and informative day of the year for anyone with an interest in bassoons.
We are open for registration to attend the event
Register: email Oliver Ludlow at enquiries@doublereed.co.uk
Location: The collection is housed in Gloucestershire, UK (the address and directions will be sent to attendees in due course)
Date: Sunday 19 April 2026
Time: 09.30 - 16.00
Cost: Free to attend
Event speakers:
Graham Waterhouse, PhD, composer and cellist, son of the late William Waterhouse
Graham Waterhouse, PhD, composer and cellist, is the son of the late William Waterhouse. He received his musical education at Cambridge University and at Folkwang Hochschule in Essen and Hochschule für Musik Köln, and has a PhD in composition. He will be discussing his father’s lifelong passion for collecting musical instruments, sheet music, orchestral scores, books, and more.
Kristian Oma Rønnes, Norwegian bassoonist and composer
Kristian Oma Rønnes is the Principal Bassoonist of the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk. He has performed with professional orchestras around the world and frequently gives masterclasses; among his most recent engagements was a masterclass at the Niccolò Piccinni Conservatory in Bari, Italy.
Kristian is also a composer, researcher, and author. His most renowned work to date is "The Expanded Bassoon Register", in this book he has expanded the bassoon’s register and added his own fingering chart for the new extremely high and low register. The book is currently used as educational material at several universities worldwide.
Ursula Leveaux, Principal Bassoon with City of London Sinfonia, Bassoonist of London’s Nash Ensemble, Principal Bassoon to the Academy of Ancient Music
Ursula Leveaux is a sought-after chamber musician and is currently the bassoonist of London’s Nash Ensemble, the resident Ensemble at the Wigmore Hall. She is the Principal Bassoon with City of London Sinfonia and is also in demand as performer on Period Instruments. In 2011 she was appointed Principal Bassoon to the Academy of Ancient Music. She is a prominent orchestral player having held the position of Principal Bassoon with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra from 1987 to 2007. Ursula is frequently invited to appear as guest principal with major orchestras and ensembles in Britain and throughout Europe.
Will Peebles, PhD, Professor of Bassoon at Western Carolina University
Dr. Will Peebles gained his Doctor of Music at Michigan State University and is a Professor of Bassoon at Western Carolina University, and contrabassoonist for the Asheville Symphony Orchestra. His doctoral dissertation on the development of bassoon fingerings led him to develop a personal collection of historical bassoons. Will's collection is one of the largest collections of historical bassoons in the world, and he has dedicated much of his life to discovering the twists and turns of bassoon development through the ages.
James Kopp, PhD, Waterhouse collection curator, author of The Bassoon (Yale University Press)
James Kopp, PhD, flying in from the USA. Author of the very significant book The Bassoon (Yale University Press). James is another dedicated Waterhouse collection curator, and one of the most knowledgeable bassoon historians in the world.
We will update everyone in due course on the itinerary, but in the meantime take a look at this write up of last year's event to get an idea of what the day will be like: Last Year's Waterhouse Bassoon Day.
For those unfamiliar with the collection, here is a short article introducing it:
The Waterhouse Collection
The Waterhouse Bassoon and Music Collection was assembled by William Waterhouse, the renowned bassoonist and author of books about the bassoon. It is a unique collection of international and historical importance. The bassoons housed in this remarkable private collection are significant to the development of Western Classical music as we know it.
The collection is now in the guardianship of his widow Elisabeth Waterhouse. William Waterhouse was Principal Bassoonist of the London Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra and founding member of the Melos Ensemble. After leaving full-time professional orchestral playing he specialised in the study and research of his instrument.
This was in the early days of the Historically Informed Performance movement (HIP), which encouraged the use of instruments contemporary with the repertoire being played (or copies thereof), when historical instrument playing was a very niche activity and therefore demand for original historic instruments was low. Through his diligence over a period of several decades he managed to acquire a significant number, of which about 50 are still in the collection.
The collection is curated by James Kopp, PhD, a renowned expert and author on bassoons in his own right and Mathew Dart, PhD, also an expert on bassoons whose PhD thesis was devoted to the design of baroque bassoons.
The collection has several notable baroque bassoons, including an English Thomas Stanesby Snr (as well as a Stanesby Jnr) and an HKiCW (a very early bassoon probably from The Netherlands or North Germany). Original baroque bassoons (those made between about 1670 when the bassoon was first designed and 1750) are extremely rare; it is thought that only around 30 known baroque bassoons are left in the world. Two earliest-known English baroque bassoons form part of the WRW Collection.
It also has bassoons from notable makers in the classical and romantic periods, all the way through to the early twentieth century, along with an historic contrabassoon and a notable collection of fagottini. In addition to the Stanesby and HKiCW the collection includes instruments by the following well-known makers:
Grundmann
Grenser
Savary (bassoon and fagottino)
Scherer (fagottino)
Rorarius (contrabassoon)
Let us know via email to enquiries@doublereed.co.uk if you would like to attend the 2026 event.
Places will be confirmed by Oliver Ludlow.
