Leo Quirk is a classically trained bassoonist with pursuits in Latin American music who recently graduated from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Eskenazi School of Fine Art.
Quirk began playing the bassoon at age nine in fourth grade. In Ithaca, New York, he studied with two consecutive Ithaca College bassoon professors, Ed Gobrecht and Lee Goodhew Romm, attended Ithaca College bassoon repertoire classes for several years, and was the first and only high school student invited to join the Cornell University Wind Ensemble.
Interlochen Arts Academy, and the Interlochen and Curtis Summer Institutes included study with internationally esteemed bassoonists, such as Daniel Matsukawa, Christopher Millard, George Sakakeeny, and Eric Stomberg. Studies with William Ludwig at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University included a variety of ensembles, including symphony orchestras, opera pit orchestras, bands, chamber ensembles, and the Latin American Ensemble.
Past summers included music and opera festivals in Mexico and the Czech Republic, with performances for international dignitaries and a production of Don Giovanni in the Estates Theatre, where Mozart conducted the premiere, an internship at Interlochen Center for the Arts, and further study abroad programs in the arts. In the fall of his senior year at IU, Quirk studied in Vienna with bassoonists Sophie Dartigalongue and Marcelo Padilla. Quirk has taken courses, and currently studies privately with Marianne Ploger at the Blair School of Music, in addition to furthering study of Latin American music.
In addition to a primary focus on bassoon and photography, Quirk has taken classes in composing and arranging music, acoustics, metalsmithing, instrument repair, drawing, painting, and printmaking, and also enjoys salsa dancing, biking, climbing trees, living in a cooperative, being a Quaker and activist, and reading.
Photo Credit – Joshua Harrison
Photo Credit – México es Cultura