“I felt a sense of belonging and accomplishment in the music community.”

Donovan Tong: “I heard about the bassoon first from my dad. He had met a music professor on a flight back from one of his business trips, and they had many conversations about the unique instruments that were starting to go extinct. One of these instruments was the bassoon, which piqued my interest. During the summer before middle school, I took my chance to try out this bazooka-looking instrument, and I am so glad that I did. Since then, because of the bassoon, my passion for music grew outside of the school band into various youth orchestras, which provided me the chance to perform at the world-renowned Carnegie Hall in New York, one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It has also inspired me to create a website full of resources for new bassoon players and to spread awareness of this endangered instrument. This has given me the chance to be in touch with many famous bassoonists around the world to collaborate on this exciting project that will hopefully inspire young aspiring musicians to give the bassoon a try. Playing the bassoon has provided me with so many exciting opportunities, and I definitely have learned to try more new things because of this. You never know how much it could impact you and the people around you.”