Johanna Mayr, bassoon

Austrian bassoonist Johanna Maria Mayr was born in Salzburg in 1998. After taking her first piano lessons at the age of eight, she began learning the bassoon at age 14 and soon won prizes at national youth competitions such as prima la musica, both as a soloist and as an ensemble member. After graduating with honours, she began her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Prof. Richard Galler, where she graduated with honours in June 2024. She took contrabassoon lessons and lessons in extended playing techniques with Robert Gillinger, as well as chamber music lessons with Gottfried Pokorny and Petra Stump-Linshalm. Currently, she studies Bassoon Instrumental Pedagogy with Prof. Philipp Tutzer at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz and teaches at Musikvermittlung Wien 14, a centre for musical education in Vienna. To round off her training, she attended masterclasses with renowned bassoonists such as Matthias Rácz, Dag Jensen, Malte Refardt, Bence Bogányi, Philipp Tutzer, Lorelei Dowling and Johannes Schwarz. In addition, she took courses at various academic institutions such as the Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Collegium Musicum Pommersfelden, the Lucerne Festival Academy and the Grafenegg Festival Academy. She regularly performs in Vienna's most important concert halls as well as internationally with orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Klangforum Wien, the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra, Bühne Baden, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra, the Webern Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Philharmonic, the Vienna Youth Philharmonic and the Louis Spohr Chamber Orchestra Kassel.

Chamber music also has a firm place in her musical everyday life, especially in the Duo Seraphim with Philomene Incici (viola), and with the newly founded conFUSION Reed Quintet. In order to transcend the boundaries of classical music and its traditional concert forms and to develop new concepts, she focuses on improvisation and new music: her experiences at the Grafenegg and Lucerne Academies, performances at the Schönbergcenter, workshops with Cecilia Thunissen from the Oorkaan Ensemble, world premieres and winning an improvisation competition with the Trio bunt round off her work.

Johanna Mayr is a fellow of the GVL – the German Organisation for the Management of Neighbouring Rights.