Bassoon

William May has been a member of the LA Opera Orchestra since 2008. He was appointed principal bassoon in 2011, a position he has held with New West Symphony and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz. He has enjoyed playing with several orchestras across Southern California, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Santa Barbara Symphony among others. Summer festivals have taken him to Siena, Italy, and to Japan for the Pacific Music Festival. He studied with Arthur Weisberg at Indiana University and furthered his training with Richard Beene at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. In his free time he enjoys traveling, hiking and teaching yoga.

William Wood is a member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, New West Symphony, Riverside Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale Sinfonia Orchestra. He has been a working musician in the Southern California region since 1984. Mr. Wood is an avid chamber music performer and is the Artistic Director and Founder of Noon Concerts @ TrinitySB, bi-monthly thirty-minute concerts at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, which began in December 2017. A native Minnesotan, he is a graduate of St. Olaf College (B.A., 1984 – Music; private studies with Benjamin Kamins and Charles Ullery) and the University of Southern California (M.M., 1987 – Bassoon Performance; private studies with Michael O’Donovan and weekly master classes with Norman Herzberg). Mr. Wood appears on the track “Come In From The Rain” on Melissa Manchester’s 2024 album RE:VIEW, a collection of new recordings with updated arrangements of her classic songs. Melissa’s father, David Manchester (bassoonist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from the early 1950’s to the mid-1970’s) had performed on the original track. Ms. Manchester used a new extended bassoon line for the updated version of “Rain”. Mr. Wood lives in Santa Barbara, California with his husband Mark and their two dogs, Chuy and Bella. He is an enthusiastic tennis player and fan, home cook, coffee roaster, art lover, and aspiring lounge singer.