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Michael Sweeney has been the Principal Bassoonist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 1989. As a soloist he has performed concerto and concertante works of Weber, R. Strauss, Haydn, Vivaldi, and Rudolf Komorous (a CBC commission for Mr. Sweeney). In 1992 he performed the Bassoon Sonata of Glenn Gould with Patricia Parr at the international conference marking the 60th anniversary of the composer's birth. In addition to his frequent chamber music performances with Amici, he has also collaborated with Emmanuel Ax and has appeared numerous times on the TSO's "Evening Overtures" series. His interest in the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau led him to prepare a performing edition for the TSO of instrumental excerpts from Rameau's last opera.
He is currently at work on The Bassoonist's Companion to Mozart's Concerto and will give the premiere of his new edition of this piece with the TSO next winter.
Mr. Sweeney studied the bassoon with Norman Herzberg at the University of Southern California, and musicianship with Joan Panetti at the Yale School of Music. He is a member of the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto and has taught at Quebec's Domaine Forget Academy |