Elizabeth Roberts, bassoon
Elizabeth Roberts, Principal Bassoon and Director of Youth Education for the Charlottesville Symphony since 2001, joined the faculty at the University of Virginia the same year. She became the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s contrabassoonist in 2017, and has played Second Bassoon with the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra since 2015. She substitutes on bassoon and contrabassoon with the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Washington National Opera, and Richmond Symphony. She was a 2008 Virginia Governor’s Award for the Arts nominee. She has served as Guest Principal Bassoon with the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra, and toured with the latter in April 2023 to Carnegie Hall. Ms. Roberts has recorded with the Virginia, Richmond, New World and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras.
Ms. Roberts served as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the University of Missouri for the 2013-2014 academic year, and was a member of the New England Music Camp faculty during the summers of 2017-2022. Ms. Roberts has taught bassoon, reedmaking, and chamber music in the Charlottesville, VA area since 2001, and has performed and taught at the Wintergreen Music Festival (VA); Beyond the Notes (UVA), where she served as Artistic Director; Music Mind and Reading (NC); the Cascade Festival of Music (OR); and the Coastal Youth Symphony Camp (GA), where she served as Program Director. She taught kindergarten in the Lincolnwood (IL) School District.
Ms. Roberts earned a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education from the University of Illinois, a Professional Studies Diploma and a Bachelor of Music from the Harid Conservatory, and a Master of Music from the University of Southern California, where she was elected to USC’s Presidential Fellows and received the Dean’s Special Commendation. In her spare time she enjoys yard work, biking, hiking, taking long walks with her fiance and spending time with her parents at their home along the Rappahannock.
