Robert Thompson

Bobby Thompson is a bassoonist from the small town of Carp outside of Ottawa, Canada. He started the bassoon when he was 10 years old through the Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy with JoAnn Simpson, who would be his mentor for 7 years.

A foundational part of his bassoon education also came from Brooke Valley Bassoon Days, a week-long program outside of Ottawa which he attended for many summers and mentored at. He attended Canterbury High School for the Arts in Ottawa from grades 9-11 and was awarded the Music Woodwind Excellence award. He was invited to perform The Weber Bassoon Concerto in F major at the Ottawa Kiwanis Music Festival Highlights Concert in 2018 and had the joy of representing Ottawa woodwinds in the OMFA provincial competition and was awarded 2nd place. He attended Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan for their 6 week orchestra program in the summer of 2019 and stayed there for his final year of high school with teacher Dr. Eric Stomberg.

This past summer he enjoyed playing with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada for their 2022 tour. In May of 2022 he won the National Arts Centre Bursary competition. He is now in his third year at the Juilliard School studying with New York Philharmonic’s associate principal bassoonist, Kim Laskowski, for his bachelor in bassoon performance.