JEFFREY LYMAN

Jeffrey Lyman is one of the premier performers, teachers, and historians of the bassoon in the United States. He has been professor of bassoon at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) since 2006. Prior to that, he held positions at Arizona State University and Bowling Green State University. His primary teachers include Bernard Garfield of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as Richard Beene and Hugh Cooper of the University of Michigan. He holds an undergraduate degree from Temple University and received his MM and DMA from University of Michigan.

He has been a member of numerous orchestras across the country and has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Savannah Symphony, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, the Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Michigan Opera Theatre.

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Professor Lyman performs annually at the conferences of the International Double Reed Society and is a popular clinician at bassoon master classes around the world. He has given master classes and guest recitals at McGill University, USC, the Curtis Institute, the Eastman School, the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Florida State University, Rice University, among many others. In summers, he runs the MPulse Bassoon Institute, an intensive week-long program specifically for high school bassoonists that is held at the University of Michigan’s Earl V. Moore Building.

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Professor Lyman is also known as an author and advocate of new music, and has many publications and commissions to his credit. As a member of the Rushes Ensemble, he was one of a consortium of bassoonists to commission, record and perform the groundbreaking work Rushes by Michael Gordon, and has toured Europe and the US in support of that work. Lyman has released multiple editions of various works from the 19th and 20th centuries as part of the Jeffrey Lyman Edition at TrevCo Music Publishing. Among these, some notable works include the first English translation of the Nouvelle Méthode de Basson by Étienne Ozi, which was the first complete method for bassoon.

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Dr. Lyman maintains an extensive YouTube channel with live videos of his concerts and of multiple degree recitals by members of the University of Michigan Bassoon Studio. A second channel, the Katz-King-Lyman Trio, features video performances of music for oboe, bassoon and piano. 

He appears on Canteloupe Records, Summit, Le Chant du Monde, New World, Brasswell, Koch International and BlockM recordings.