September 27, 2021
K-State faculty member innovates tools and techniques of the instrument
Susan Gustavson Maxwell, a teaching assistant professor of bassoon in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, has a featured reed-making tool in the Fall Newsletter of Midwest Music Imports, a music retail company out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This tool, which helps make the bassoon reed, was the product of a Kansas State University Research Grant Award and has been purchased by more than 50 major universities across the country. It is currently the only female-created and retailed bassoon reed-making tool in the world, and Maxwell is one of the few K-State female faculty to hold such intellectual property.
Maxwell has also recently republished her "High Note Study for the bassoon," which is currently sold through three publications. It is one of the first five bassoon studies written by a woman for the bassoon. This 2021 republication sparked a social media discussion of the need for a listing of studies for bassoon published by women — and from it, one was created.