Darren Hicks

bassoon

Bassoonist Darren Hicks believes music lives at the crossroads of the real world and the intangible stuff of the human experience and his students will tell you how often he uses up precious lesson time to wax poetically about the metaphysical aspects of creating art. Darren spent his childhood in the small rural town of Middleton, Nova Scotia, where music captivated him early as a means of understanding and expressing emotions, something he often struggled to do with words. His piano teacher Maureen MacLean, the King’s Chorale Children’s Chorus, Middleton Regional High School (MRHS) band teacher Richard Bennett, the Annapolis Valley Honour Choir, and bassoon teacher Robert (Bob) McCarthy helped introduce Darren to the breadth, language, and joy of music that propelled him toward further study at the university level. Darren is eternally grateful to his teacher and mentor, Christopher Millard, who took a chance on a naïve kid from Nova Scotia by accepting Darren into his studio at the University of Ottawa. After four years of intense but enriching and life-altering study in the bassoon and the art of music-making Darren earned a Bachelor of Music degree in bassoon performance in 2012. He is ecstatic to have succeeded Chris as principal bassoon of the National Arts Centre Orchestra and strives to carry the legacy forward.

Darren is over the moon to have the chance to share his music with people on a daily basis and still finds it surreal that this is his career. He plays a custom bassoon built by Ben Bell of Bell Bassoons Ltd. Darren Hicks