Cassandra Roaché

Cassandra Roaché is a bassoonist whose work exists at the intersection of high quality performance, new music advocacy, and holistic education. She prefers exploring unusual sonic textures and challenging traditional American classical music culture. Her pedagogy and music-making at its heart aims to celebrate all things wonderfully strange and unique.

Cassandra is a committed educator and has been described as possessing “the rare balance of excellence in both performing and teaching.” She has maintained private studios in Texas, Georgia, and Minnesota. Her students are active participants in their local and state communities, and have had honors such as invitation to University of Georgia MidFest, bassoon scholarships to McCallie Boarding School, and invitation to Minnesota State Honor Band. Cassandra’s pedagogy centers on meeting a student where they are and equipping them with the tools necessary to perform at their best. In addition to her teaching in the MacPhail Center for Music’s School Partnerships program, she currently maintains a small private studio in Minneapolis. Cassandra has recently applied her pedagogy in the recently published band method book, The Band Code.

Chamber music is a special interest of Cassandra’s; she enjoys working in smaller, more intimate settings and exercising creative license when it comes to interpreting music. In addition to her position as the principal bassoonist of the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra, she appears regularly with Minneapolis-based groups like the Sonora Winds and LADYBAND Chamber Winds. She is also a strong advocate for new music, and has commissioned a number of new works for bassoon. As a pedagogue, Cassandra believes in showing students the joys of both traditional repertoire and repertoire by diverse, living composers.

Cassandra holds a master’s degree from the University of Georgia, where she studied with Dr. Amy Pollard, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas, where she studied with Kathleen Reynolds and Dr. Jorge Cruz. She also studied with Bonnie Sherman of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra.

In her spare time, Cassandra enjoys playing video games, reading science fiction, weightlifting, and debating the complexities of life with her Siamese cat, Violet.

View her teaching philosophy here.