William Dietz is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona. He received a Doctorate of Music in Bassoon Performance from Florida State University where he studied with William Winstead. Dietz has served as Principal Bassoonist with various orchestras, including the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Costa Rica, the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts Orchestra, and the Arizona Musicfest Orchestra. In addition, he performed sixteen seasons with the Tucson Symphony. As a recitalist and chamber musician, he has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, and Europe. Dietz has premiered numerous works at the annual conferences of the International Double Reed Society. He is the senior author and editor of Teaching Woodwinds: A Method and Resource Handbook for Music Educators, a text designed for college wind instrumental techniques classes, and has had numerous articles appear in professional periodicals such as The Journal of the International Double Reed Society, The National Association of Wind and Percussion Instructors Journal, Bandworld, The Instrumentalist, and Dialogue in Music Education Journal.

Dr. Marissa Olegario is Assistant Professor of Bassoon at The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music. Known for her compelling and personality-driven performances, she enjoys an active and diverse performance schedule as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. Marissa has appeared in concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center under conductors such as James Conlon, John Adams, Peter Oundjin, Rafael Payere and Leonard Slatkin. Interested in interdisciplinary work, Marissa has collaborated with the Martha Graham Dance Company, commissioned lighting designs for performances, and partnered with Dance for Parkinson's to provide live music for people suffering from Parkinson's disease. Constantly seeking new artistic possibilities, Marissa has premiered works by Jay Vosk, Szilárd Mezei, and Shuying Li and has commissioned new works by Shuying Li, Sarah Gibson, Yuanyuan (Kay) He, and John Steinmetz.

Marissa was a semi-finalist for the 2016 Matthew Ruggiero International Woodwind Competition and was recognized as a recipient of the Yale School of Music Alumni Prize. An active chamber musician, she has appeared at the Phoenix Chamber Society Winter Series, the Norfolk Chamber Festival, and the clasclas festival in Spain where she performed with former concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker Guy Braunstein. She actively subs with the acclaimed Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet and is a member of the Arizona Wind Quintet, resident faculty quintet at the Fred Fox School of Music. She can be heard on two Naxos produced albums: Beethoven: Music for Winds featuring David Shifrin, Stephen Taylor, Frank Morelli, and William Purvis and A Vision of Time and Eternity: Songs and Chamber Music, featuring unrecorded works by Welsh composer William Mathias.

As the 2017-2018 Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Performance Fellows, Marissa participated in the organization’s program which provided mentorship and professional development for emerging artists from underrepresented backgrounds. Marissa acknowledges the systemic inequity in the classical music industry and recognizes her essential responsibility as an educator to actively work towards enacting change. She programs, commissions, and premiers works by female, BIPOC, and historically underrepresented composers and works to elevate the ideals and perspectives of the diverse groups of people who contribute to the industry.

A graduate of SUNY Stony Brook (DMA), the Yale School of Music (MM) and Northwestern University (BM), Marissa’s major teachers are Christopher Millard, Lewis Kirk, and Frank Morelli. She is available to present master classes and performances at universities and performing arts schools around the United States.

I have been fortunate to have had fruitful collaborations with many composers and have enjoyed seeing a work through from its inception to its premiere. After presenting a new piece, I often wondered how the work might fare and if it would receive subsequent performances. Some of these works are now 25 years old and perhaps it is time for a second look. I hope this recording will stimulate interest in these engaging pieces.