The Akropolis Reed Quintet’s bassoonist, Dr. Ryan Reynolds is adjunct professor of Bassoon at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, OH. Prior to his current position, Reynolds taught bassoon at Miami University and was a graduate teaching assistant for the Florida State University bassoon studio, where he received his DMA in Bassoon. He has performed with the Dayton Philharmonic, Savannah Philharmonic, Traverse Symphony, Springfield Symphony, and Ann Arbor Symphony. 

Reynolds is also regular recitalist and contributor to the International Double Reed Society conferences. In 2018 at the Society’s conference in Granada, Spain, he premiered composer Ethan Wickman’s Cuatro Escanas del Cante Jondo for bassoon and piano, Per Bloland’s Asemic Patterns for oboe and bassoon, and Chiel Meijering’s the green reed which blows in the wind for 12 bassoons and string orchestra. At the Society’s 2019 conference in Tampa, FL, Dr. Reynolds performed a set of masterworks for reed quintet with the Akropolis Reed Quintet to a full house.

An educator, Reynolds was a judge for the junior level at the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and was Akropolis’ representative to judge the Barlow Endowment’s first prize for a reed quintet commission. He has taught at the Renova Music Festival, Bocal Majority, Operation Oboe Camps, and many master classes at the United States’ top universities.

He has been featured on National Public Radio’s “From the Top,” Interlochen Public Radio, and can be seen in numerous videos in the University of Michigan Bassoon Studio and Akropolis Reed Quintet YouTube series.

After attending the Interlochen Arts Academy from 2004-08, where he studied with Dr. Eric Stomberg, Ryan attended the University of Michigan for his BM and MM degrees and Florida State University for his DMA. He studied with Dr. Jeffrey Lyman and Jeff Keesecker, respectively.