Jill Solomon is an active freelance bassoonist in the greater Toronto area, and teaches bassoon at University of Toronto, National Music Camp of Canada, as well as privately. She is an Itinerant Music Instructor for Toronto District School Board teaching beginner bands, and on faculty at TDSB’s Music by the Lake Camp. Jill regularly performs with a wide variety of orchestral groups such as Opera York, Toronto Concert Orchestra, Amadeus Choir, Eisler Singers, and Tallisker Players to name a few. Over the years she’s played with the Hamilton Philharmonic, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Mississauga Symphony, and Orchestra London. Jill has given bassoon and double reed clinics at Ontario Music Educator’s Conferences, and published an article about beginning double reeds for their magazine The Recorder.

Jill studied bassoon performance at the ‘Mozarteum’ University of Salzburg, the Orchestral Training Programme (now known as the Glenn Gould School), and at York University. Teachers include James McKay, Christopher Weait, David Carroll, Milan Turkovic, and Gabor Janota.

Practising yoga is also a big part of Jill’s life as she realizes the positive affects that yoga has on her bassoon playing and life in general. Mindfulness studies allow for stress-free performance, breath work enhances tone and phrasing, and balanced muscles help to reduce the aches and pains associated with hours of bassoon playing and sitting in orchestras. Jill became a yoga teacher in 2010, and a co-owner of Modo Yoga Markham (formerly Moksha Yoga) in 2013.