Musician Category: Bassoon

Antoine Pecqueur

Born in 1982, Antoine Pecqueur began studying the bassoon at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg before entering, at the age of 18, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon, where he obtained his degree in 2004, as a student of Laurent Lefèvre. He then completed post-graduate studies at the Musikhoschule in Zurich with Pascal Gallois and after with Sergio Azzolini.

Between 2003 and 2005, he was the principal Contrabassoon player with the Orchestre de Limoges.

​Within the frame of the ‘Formation Supérieure’ for classical and romantic orchestral playing in Saintes, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, Antoine Pecqueur started to specialize in the interpretation of this repertoire on period instruments. He works regularly, as bassoon and contrabassoon player, with many period instrument orchestras : Les Siècles, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Anima Eterna, Ensemble Matheus, Le Concert de la Loge…

​He also puts great importance on the interpretation of contemporary music, playing with the Ensemble Linea. He will give the first performance of the concerto for contrabassoon composed by Rocio Cano Valino.

​He gives also concerts as conductor and bassoon player, with Georgisches Kammerorchester Ingolstadt, Ensemble dell’Arte…

Benny Aghassi

Benny Aghassi, born in Israel (1978), began his recorder studies with Bracha Kol. During his studies at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem he won several competitions, including the Woodwind Concerto Competition and the Early Music Competition. He received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he studied with Sébastien Marq (recorder) and Donna Agrell (baroque and classical bassoons), and completed his Masters degree (‘cum laude’) with Heiko ter Schegget at The Conservatory of Utrecht. He currently lives in The Hague and teaches historical bassoon at the Amsterdam conservatory.

Benny was chosen to play with the European Union Baroque Orchestra (Lars Ulrik Mortensen). He currently plays and record with orchestras such as Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the 18th century (Frans Brüggen), The Academy of Ancient Music (Richard Egarr), Al Ayre Español (Eduardo López Banzo), The Netherlands Bach Society (Jos van Veldhoven), Orchestre des Champs Elysées (Philippe Herreweghe), B’Rock, Orchestra Libera Classica (Hidemi Suzuki), Musica ad Rhenum (Jed Wentz), Holland Baroque Society, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman) and Les Musiciens du Prince (Cecilia Bartoli). In 2005 he won 2 first prizes in the ‘Aviv Competitions’ in Tel-Aviv for Old Music Instruments, and Best Performance of an Israeli Work. He has held a grant from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation between 1997-2005.

Carles Cristobal

Carles Cristóbal, born in Premia de Mar (Barcelona), began his musical studies as a recorder player and sometime later with the bassoon studying with Josep Borras at the Conservatorio Profesional de Badalona. In the year 2000, thanks to a grant by the Generalitat de Catalunya, he moves to Basel where he studies historical bassoon with Claude Wassmer and Donna Agrell, graduating in 2003.

In 2002 he takes part of the European Baroque Orchestra (Roy Goodman, Paul Goodwin, Fabio Biondi) as well as the Netherland´s Youth Orchestra (Philippe Herreweghe).

He has played with international renown orchestras such as Venice Baroque Orchestra, Freiburger Barrockorchester, La Petite Bande, Baltasar Neumann Ensemble, Kammerorchester Basel, Collegium Vocale Gent, Il Complesso Barocco, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, Le Talents Lyriques, Hesperion XXI, Le Concert de Nations, Al Ayre Español, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie to name a few and played in the most important halls of Europe, USA and Japan.

Since 2007 he is professor of historical bassoon at the Conservatorio Profesional “Isaac Albeniz” in Girona.

Tomasz Wesolowski

Tomasz Wesołowski was born in 1980 in Gdańsk where he studied bassoon with Wojciech Orawiec, supported by a scholarship from the President of Gdańsk, and received his Masters Degree with distinction in 2004.

From 2004-2008 he was studying historical bassoon with Donna Agrell and dulcian with Wouter Verschuren at the Royal Conservatoire in Den Haag, and later on with Alberto Grazzi at Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan supported by a scholarship from Fondazione Marco Fodella.

He has been involved in many orchestral, chamber and solo music projects in Europe, Asia and USA. He has performed with Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski), Capella Cracoviensis, {oh!} orkiestra historyczna, B’rock (René Jacobs), Freiburger Barockorchester, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman), Les Musiciens du Prince (Cecilia Bartoli), Anima Eterna, Les Talens Lyriques (Christophe Rousset), Bach Collegium Japan (Masaaki Suzuki), Gli Angeli Genève (Stephan Mac Leod), Netherlands Bach Society, Arte Dei Suonatori; recording CDs for Channel Classics, naïve, Alpha, BIS, ORF, claves, Brillant Classics, DUX, Netflix and HBO.

Alongside his busy performance schedule, Tomasz teaches historical bassoon and chamber music at the Academy of Music in Poznań and Academy of Music in Gdańsk as well as at various masterclasses in Poland, Germany and Brazil.

Philippe Miqueu

Après des études de basson moderne à Pau et à Versailles, Philippe Miqueu se spécialise en basson baroque et devient basson solo de l’Orchestre de l’Union Européenne. Il est depuis régulièrement demandé dans les orchestres de Christie, Haïm, Rohrer, Malgoire, Kuijken, Herreweghe ou Christophe Coin. Sa carrière le mène donc dans le monde entier au sein de ces prestigieux ensembles.