Susan Maxwell has dedicated her career to three dimensions of musicianship; she is a teacher, performer and reed maker. Currently, she is an Adjunct Instructor of Theory at Kansas State University, teaching the part-writing portion of the core theory classes. In addition to her teaching duties she continues to perform as principal bassoonist in her fifth season with Northwest Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Amidst her teaching and performing she is also the designer and creator of the “Tristan Bassoon Reed” which is sold through Tristan Double Reed Products.
Dr. Maxwell recently finished her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Bassoon Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Conservatory of Music. A portion of her dissertation was dedicated to bassoon reed-making and the formation of the first High Note Study for the Bassoon. Her time at UMKC was generously funded by the Liberace Foundation as she was a Liberace Scholar.
Some of Dr. Maxwell’s other performance engagements have included substitute positions with The Kansas City Symphony, The Kansas City Lyric Opera, The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, The Tulsa Philharmonic, The Lake Shore Symphony in Chicago, Illinois, Orquesta Sinfónica de Nuevo León in Monterrey, Mexico and a two-year position with The Wichita Symphony, in Wichita, Kansas.