Bassoonist and contrabassoonist Steven Braunstein has been a member of the San Francisco Symphony since 1990 and played in the Toronto Symphony from 1979 through 1989. During the 2007-2008 season, he played with the Orquestra de la Communitat Valenciano at the newly opened Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Spain. Braunstein holds a B.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts (1975) and an M.M. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1977). He studied bassoon with Bill Douglas, Arthur Weisberg, Elias Carmen and William Polisi, contrabassoon with Burt Bial and Paul Camerata and reed making with Lou Skinner. In 2002, Braunstein was soloist with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in the world premiere of Tilson Thomas' Urban Legend for contrabassoon and orchestra, a work composed for him. For 13 summers he has participated in the Grand Teton Music Festival and has played in the Aspen, Sun Valley and Colorado Music festivals. He has taught at the University of Toronto and San Francisco State University and has been a coach at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. He is currently on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
