Susan Nelson is the Associate Professor of Bassoon and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), Ohio, and enjoys an active career as a performer, teacher, and clinician. Dr. Nelson is an advocate for new music as well as chamber music for the bassoon, and is the Director of the non-profit organization Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition (BCMCC) and founding member of Across the Grain bassoon/percussion duo.

Dr. Nelson teaches at various camps, including BGSU’s Double Reed Camp and The Renova Festival. She has performed with the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria, Michigan Opera Theatre, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Symphony Orchestra, and Helena Symphony, among others. She has also given solo performances at the International Double Reed Society Conferences in Boulder (CO), Redlands (CA), Oxford (OH), New York, Tokyo (Japan), and Thailand, among others.

Dr. Nelson has taught bassoon and theory at Stephen F. Austin State University and played with the Stone Fort Wind Quintet in Nacogdoches, Texas. She also taught at both Adrian (MI) and Heidelberg (OH) Colleges and was a member of the Heidelberg faculty wind quintet. She also held the position of principal bassoon in the Great Falls Symphony and was a member of the Chinook Winds quintet in Great Falls, Montana.

She can be heard on the album Elements, through the MSR Classics label, which features winning works from select BCMCC competitions. Dr. Nelson is a graduate of the University of Kansas, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Michigan. Her primary teachers include Jeffrey Lyman, Carl Rath, and Alan Hawkins. Dr. Nelson is a Fox Artist.

Carl Rath recently retired from college teaching after 48 years. His most recent affiliation was at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music from 2012-2023, Prior to that, he taught at the University of Oklahoma for 31 years. He is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Oklahoma, performing in the Oklahoma Woodwind Quintet, during his tenure. He received the College of Fine Arts Outstanding Faculty Award and the Peer Recognition Award. In addition to Lawrence University and the University of Oklahoma, Rath has also taught at the University of Denver, Northwestern State University (LA), Centenary College, Louisiana College, and Ripon College. Through the years, he has taught bassoon, theory, music appreciation, percussion, popular music courses, band, woodwind methods, student teacher supervision, and coached chamber music.

For 22 years, he held the Principal Bassoon chair in the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a member of the Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble of Oklahoma City. Rath continues his performing career and has performed in China, Argentina, Taiwan, Canada, Austria, Hungary, England and the U.S. Rath performed as Principal Bassoon with the Classical Music Festival orchestra in Austria for 17 summers and was featured as soloist 3 years. His performances have been heard on national and international radio programs and are featured on five CDs. He studied bassoon with Fred Schroeder, Stanley Scheller, Stephen Basson, Robert Thompson, and Wil Roberts. In 1985, he was a Quarter-finalist in the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and performed in Carnegie Hall with the Oklahoma Woodwind Quintet. A patron member of the International Double Reed Society, he has performed at several annual conferences and has hosted the IDRS annual conference twice, in 2010 at OU and again in 2017 at Lawrence.

Carl teaches and performs two summer music festivals: Sewanee Summer Music Festival (since 2017) and Red Lodge (MT) Music Festival (since 1980). He has presented masterclasses in Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Buenos Aires, Hungary, and the U.S. He has been a guest performer and clinician for the Bocal Majority Music Camps, as well as Double Reed Days in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio, and Utah.

He is an avid supporter of the bassoon ensemble to present unique concert experiences for audiences of all ages featuring original repertoire and arrangements spanning Western Classical music and Popular Music. In 1984, he formed the Sooner Bassooners to supplement his teaching of bassoon at the University of Oklahoma, and at Lawrence University he created the ViBE (Viking Bassoon Ensemble). Some of his arrangements for bassoon ensemble are published by Imagine Music (NY).

In addition to his career as a bassoonist, Rath is in demand as guest speaker on The Beatles, a passion of his since 1964. For several years he was a conductor for 1964 the Tribute, described by Rolling Stone magazine as ‘the best Beatles tribute ever’. Along with University of Oklahoma School of Music colleagues, he was a founding member and the drummer of the popular classic rock band, MidLife Crysis, for 24 years.

Laura Melton, Professor of Piano Bowling Green State University, has performed in Asia, Europe, South America and throughout the US.  A prizewinner in several major international competitions, Melton has appeared as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Freiburg Musikhochschulorchester in Germany, the San Francisco Chamber Players, and the International Chamber Orchestra in California. She has been featured on Südwestfunk Radio (Germany), Kol Israel, Radio Nacional de España and National Public Radio's Performance Today in celebration of the birthday of composers, John Corigliano and Samuel Adler.

Melton received rave reviews for her Naxos American Classics Series CD, Solo Piano Works of Sebastian Currier.  Gramophone hails her as “an artist who can tame formidable technical beasts and bring colorful delineation to a multiplicity of moods and textures.  The New York Times praises her playing as “expressive and with dexterous flair.” Additional recordings include solo piano and chamber music works by Samuel Adler for Naxos, and Currier’s violin and piano works for Albany Records with violinist, Yehonatan Berick.

Melton is an avid chamber musician and has appeared in several US summer festivals including Ravinia, Aspen, and Sarasota, as well as European festivals in Holland, Switzerland, Germany and Greece.  She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, where she was a student of Nelita True; a master's degree from the University of Southern California, under John Perry; and a doctorate from Rice University, where she was a graduate fellow and teaching assistant to John Perry. As a student of Robert Levin, she spent three years in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, earning the Solistendiplom while studying at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg.

Melton’s students have won numerous competitions and awards, and have been accepted into such prestigious programs as the Curtis Institute, Juilliard, Eastman, Oberlin, Peabody and the New England Conservatory. A graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and student of Michael Coonrod, Melton taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp for 12 summers.  Prior to her BGSU appointment in 1999, Melton was on the faculty of the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California.