Bio

André Januário is a Brazilian artist-researcher with work connecting bassoon performance, repertoire creation, and research-informed musical practice. His current artistic focus is Brazilian music, chamber works, and arrangements for voice and bassoon.

His ongoing artistic projects focus primarily on chamber music. André conceived and founded the Trillium Wind Quintet, a Michigan-based ensemble dedicated to developing new performance initiatives across the Great Lakes region.

With Split Reed, his bassoon and saxophone duo, André develops arrangements, commissions, and projects for this uncommon pairing. In 2026, he was named one of six winners of the International Double Reed Society Commissioning Grant, awarded as part of the Society’s 50th anniversary. The grant supported the creation of Serenata e Maracatu by Brazilian composer Gilson Santos, written for André and premiered by Split Reed at the 2026 International Double Reed Society Conference in Ohio, USA. The conference program also featured André’s arrangement of Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 for bassoon and saxophone, dedicated to the duo.

Alongside his performance career, André is an associate researcher at McGill University’s Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory in Montréal, Canada. During his PhD at McGill, he developed an interest in the interplay between technology and music performance training. Building upon his research background in Applied Performance Sciences, his current investigations concentrate on using eye-tracking technology to assess reading performance among music students.

In the US, he collaborated with the West Virginia Symphony, Marietta Symphony Orchestra (OH), Kettle Moraine Symphony (WI), and Lake County Symphony Orchestra (IL), and taught at West Virginia University and Middle Tennessee State University. Early in his career, André held full-time positions as assistant principal bassoonist at the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro Symphony Orchestra and as principal bassoonist for the Caxias do Sul Symphony Orchestra and the Theatro São Pedro Chamber Orchestra in southern Brazil. His performances include recitals across various Brazilian cities, as well as in Montréal (Canada), Paris and Sèvres (France), and Buenos Aires (Argentina).

André Januário received early training at conservatories in Brazil, Argentina, and France before earning a bachelor’s degree in bassoon performance from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from West Virginia University. His teachers and mentors include Noël Devos, Fabio Cury, Alexandre Silvério, Milan Turkovic, Aloysio Fagerlande, and Lynn Hileman.