About Janet

Conductor of Preparatory Winds, Intensive Community Program Assistant Director for Winds

Janet Underhill, a native of British Columbia, Canada, has been a bassoonist, teacher and arts administrator in the Boston area for over 30 years. For her ten years of managing and developing the chamber music program for BYSO (Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras), Janet was the recipient of the 2001 Kay Logan Award, a national award for excellence in chamber music teaching. Currently she serves as a bassoon instructor at The Boston College, Northeastern University, Gordon College, South Shore Conservatory, and Community Music Center of Boston. With BYSO she is the conductor of Preparatory Winds and the Assistant Director of Winds for ICP (Intensive Community Program).  She recently was awarded a META (Music Educators and Teaching Artists) fellowship through the Massachusetts Cultural Council.  Janet is a founding member of Arcadian Winds, a woodwind quintet specializing in contemporary music, which has commissioned and premiered more than 50 works. Solo performances include concertos with The Pittsburgh Symphony, Simon Sinfonetta, Harvard University Mozart Society Orchestra, as well as solo performances at the International Double Reed Conference in Minneapolis, The Fromm Series at Harvard University, the Gaudeamus Competition in Rotterdam, Holland, The Women’s Avant Festival in Chicago, The Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival in Vermont, The Outoftowners series in New York City, CrossSounds in Alaska, Interharmony in Sulzbach-Rosenberg Germany, Alea III in Naxos, Greece and Soundwaves in St. Petersburg, Russia. As a soloist and ensemble member she appeared in over 30 CDs and numerous radio broadcasts.  Also interested in archival projects, she has developed a cataloging system for ethnic recordings with composer Martin Bartlett, and has organized Gunther Schuller’s personal collection.