Bassoon

The bassoon class at the Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM) offers a particularly stimulating learning environment

In addition to the teaching provided by the permanent professor, a renowned soloist and chamber musician as well as an experienced teacher, students in the HEM bassoon class benefit from the input of internationally renowned artists, who are regularly invited to give masterclasses.

The HEM’s bassoon class offers a particularly stimulating learning environment, which makes the most of their cultural diversity. The atmosphere is one that favours human contact and new friendships. Besides the individual classes, there is a large number and variety of opportunities to play in a group: orchestra sessions, chamber music, multi-disciplinary projects. Simulations of orchestra contests are also regularly held.

Our students are encouraged to broaden their horizons by getting an initiation in the baroque bassoon within the HEM’s Department of Music of the Past. Thanks to the resources at our Centre de musique électroacoustique (Centre for electro-acoustic music, CME), they can also experiment with avant-garde styles of music through amplification, the use of effect pedals, etc.

The close ties that the HEM maintains with the region’s professional ensembles offer our students numerous opportunities to play in renowned ensembles such as the Orchestre de la Suisse romande (OSR), the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève (OCG) or the Ensemble de musique contemporaine Contrechamps. The vitality of the music scene in French-speaking Switzerland provides numerous opportunities for engagement, so as to enrich their practice and grow their network of contacts.

Teachers

Diego Chenna

Professor of bassoon

Diego Chenna joins the HEM as bassoon professor for the 2026–2027 academic year Diego Chenna studied bassoon at the Turin Conservatory of Music with V. Menghini and at the Stuttgart University of Music with S. Azzolini. At the same time, he was a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, who also invited him to play in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and to collaborate with the Orchestra Mozart Bologna as a teacher, principal bassoonist and soloist. In 1998, he won first prize in the Fernand Gillet International Competition in the United States. As a soloist, he has performed with the Italian National Radio and Television Orchestra, the Orchestra da camera di Mantova, the Camerata Bern, the Camerata Zürich, the Moscow Soloists, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Georgian State Symphony Orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Beethoven Academie (Antwerp), among others. In 2006, the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, he performed the Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra K. 191 with the Kremerata Baltica. As a chamber musician, he has performed with Heinz Holliger, Alexander Lonquich, Yuri Bashmet, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Maurice Bourgue and many others, and has been invited to major international festivals. A tireless researcher, he devotes himself to the interpretation of forgotten works for bassoon, contemporary music and the development of new instrumental techniques, as well as the use of live electronics in his concerts. Many composers have dedicated works to him.

Afonso Venturieri

Professor of Bassoon

Afonso Venturieri was born in Belém, Brazil. With a scholarship from the German government, he studied under Helman Jung at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, where he passed the Künstlerische Reifeprüfung exam with high distinction in 1984. He completed his training with Milan Turkovic at the renowned Hochschule für Musik Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1989, he won the First Prize at the International Competition for Wind Instruments organized by the Swiss Union of Musicians (USDAM). After serving as a bassoonist with the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Afonso Venturieri became a member of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in 1987, where he holds the position of principal solo bassoon. He regularly conducts workshops and masterclasses in South America and Europe. He is also dedicated to the training of young musicians, serving as a coach for the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, among others. He performs as a soloist and as part of various chamber music ensembles. Learn more about Afonso Venturieri.