Kika Wright, Bassoon
Honduran-born bassoonist Kika Wright is an energetic and versatile performer, recently transplanted to New York City where she is working as a freelance musician, teaching artist, and arts administrator. She is an active chamber musician and serves as the bassoonist for the Atlantic Collective of New York City and Incidental Chamber Players of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Ms. Wright is the music programs manager for The Bronx Arts Ensemble (BAE), an organization that brings music and related arts to the Bronx. She also teaches woodwinds in Bronx public schools as a teaching artist for the BAE, and works as an online teaching artist for Quinteto Latino. In the summer, She teaches bassoon at the Band Camp for Adult Musicians at Allegheny College in Meadeville, Pennsylvania.
Previously, she was the bassoonist and board vice president of the music arts collective Mind on Fire, as well as an active freelance musician in the Baltimore-DC area. A dedicated educator, Ms. Wright served as the double-reed instructor at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington DC, bassoon instructor and chamber music coach at the Levine School in Washington DC, and as adjunct professor of double reeds at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD.
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In May 2015, Ms. Wright completed the Artist Diploma program at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada, where she was the recipient of the Ihnatowycz Emerging Artist Scholarship.
For two years, Ms. Wright participated in the Performance Residency Program at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. During this period, Ms. Wright was active in the Pittsburgh music community, performing with many regional orchestras, chamber ensembles, and university ensembles. She can still be heard performing with various groups on WQED FM’s Performance in Pittsburgh series.
Ms. Wright has had the pleasure of performing in such venues as Carnegie Hall, The John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, Heinz Hall of Pittsburgh, Koerner Hall in Toronto, and the Sala Mozart Hall of the Palacio de Congresos in Zaragoza, Spain. She has had the honor of playing under the batons of Leslie Dunner, Julius Williams, Michael Morgan, Osmo Vänskä, Manfred Honeck, Anne Manson, Leon Fleisher, and Johannes Debus.
Ms. Wright has performed with Quinteto Latino, Hamptons Festival Orchestra, Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, DC String Project, Brooklyn Metro Chamber Orchestra, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Erie Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Sinfonietta, Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, Westmoreland Symphony, and other regional orchestras.
Ms. Wright has participated in summer music programs in the U.S. and Canada, including the Hot Springs Music Festival, Madeline Island Music Camp, Banff Music Centre, Eastern Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Former teachers include Frank Morelli, Nancy Goeres, Daryl Durran, and Marc Vallon.
Ms. Wright is a member of the International Double Reed Society and the American Federation of Musicians, Local 802.
