ABOUT NADINA
Nadina Mackie Jackson, one of the world’s leading bassoonists, has led the way as a soloist and performer. Dozens of original works have been written for her. Nadina’s books and award winning recordings are references for bassoonists and music lovers alike.
MUSIC CAREER
Born and raised in the forests of northern British Columbia on Canada’s West Coast, Nadina flew alone as a child on turbo-prop airplanes to attend bassoon lessons in Vancouver, often sleeping overnight at the airport.
At 16, she entered the University of British Columbia. Less than two years later, the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia accepted her with a full scholarship. She went on to win positions with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, making her concerto debut with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra before skipping her own graduation ceremony to begin her first professional post in Montreal.
Her decade with the Montreal Symphony led to many tours to Europe, North and South America, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, performing in the great halls of the world, including Carnegie Hall, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, Berliner Philharmonie Hall, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, the Paris Opera, and many others.
In 1991, Nadina won the principal bassoonist position with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. During that time, she co-founded the Caliban Quartet of Bassoonists. She also embraced the study of historical bassoons, playing and recording as a guest in Canada with Toronto’s Tafelmusik and the Aradia Ensemble, and abroad with Cleveland’s Apollo’s Fire and Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society. She continued performing with chamber orchestras including Toronto’s Group of 27 and Quebec’s Les Violons du Roy, with occasional guest appearances in the bassoon section of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
The first woman to win a tenured bassoon position with a major Canadian orchestra, Nadina has long been recognized as a trailblazer for female bassoonists. She was invited to be on the first advisory board for the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition, a Texas-based competition for female students in the Americas. Nadina also co-directed the Grand River Baroque Festival for two seasons, integrating historical and modern instrument performances for soloists and orchestra and launched a wide-ranging collaborative chamber concert series in Toronto, Bassoon Out Loud (2016-17).
TEACHING
Nadina began her teaching career at the age of 22 at Montreal’s McGill University while playing with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Later, her solo touring schedules combined with dedicated teaching at the University of Toronto, the State University of New York at Fredonia and as a guest at many universities throughout Canada, the United States and Chile. She has led educational bassoon-based events in Toronto, including Sounds to the Future at the University of Toronto (2015) and the annual Vivaldi Christmas concerts (2006-2012).
Nadina continues to perform as a soloist and develop new platforms, including her recent film “Open Sky Bassoon,” screened during her 2025 Southern US university tour. Her contributions as a performer, teacher, author, recording artist and speaker over many decades have changed the classical landscape. Above all, she is an inspiration to young musicians and a genuine ambassador for classical music.
PHILANTHROPY
Nadina established the nationally registered educational charity, the Council of Canadian Bassoonists, in 2006 to make bassoon education (and bassoons!) available to people outside urban centres. Many of the young bassoonists who were supported by this organization have gone on to international careers.
RECORDINGS
The first decade of Nadina’s professional career coincided with the Montreal Symphony’s most prolific years of award-winning recording projects with London’s Decca Records (see full discography). She appeared several times as a soloist with the Montreal Symphony, igniting a career that has seen hundreds of solo performances and recordings.
Nadina is now the most widely recognized and recorded solo bassoonist in Canadian history, with prize-winning concerto albums including Bacchanale (Best Orchestral Album, Just Plain Folks, 2009); Romanza, Canadian Concerto Project (finalist Juno 2014 for Best Solo with Orchestra); Vivaldi Volume I (Best Orchestral Album, Just Plain Folks, 2020). Plans include recording all of the new concerti written for Nadina and the remaining 31 concerti for bassoon by Vivaldi.
While increasingly focused on her solo career, Nadina stayed connected with her orchestral roots by performing and touring with Quebec city’s Les Violons du Roy (see reviews), Toronto’s all-star experimental chamber orchestra, Group of 27, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. From her start in Montreal to the present, Nadina’s orchestral and chamber music performances are frequently featured by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
The CBC also sponsored “Bassoonatics,” the first of several critically praised recordings by the Caliban Quartet of Bassoonists that have influenced and inspired bassoonists around the world. The CBC continues to broadcast these recordings and Nadina’s many solo recordings and has twice invited her to host its nationally broadcast much-loved show, “This Is My Music.”
Composers have written many concerti and solo works for Nadina. Most recently, the State University of New York at Fredonia commissioned the famed American composer Augusta Read Thomas to write a concerto (CARNIVAL) for Nadina. CARNIVAL was released on Terpsichore’s Box of Dreams and was BBC Magazine’s Recording of the Month for June 2024 and short-listed as best orchestral album for the year. Nadina’s recordings ignite the ambitions of others, as reflected in countless reviews by critics and peers. For instance, her recording of Michel Corrette’s “Les Délices de la Solitude” (The Delights of Solitude) is cited in the The End of Early Music by musicologist Bruce Haynes. Nadina is frequently interviewed by industry magazines (The Double Reed, journal of the International Double Reed Society & the Dutch magazine, Scrapes). Also an accomplished visual artist, both Nadina and her work are used as cover features (The Double Reed, Whole Note).
BOOKS
Nadina is frequently invited to headline concerts in the US, at universities, trade conferences and music festivals, teaching and leading masterclasses, motivating students and professionals to think beyond the constrictions of classical music. She shares artistic insights gleaned from a lifetime of honing rigorous skills in her book, Solitary Refinement. Her books combine imagination and discipline, starting with Solitary Refinement: Concepts for the Committed Bassoonist (Friesen Press, 2020), which was on the publisher’s best-seller list for over a month and licenced to US publisher TrevCo Music within the year. Given the rarity of bassoonists in
the general population, it is a testament to the broader concepts that apply to all musicians. Nadina’s book continues to sell well. (see review).
She followed this with Book of Birds (Friesen Press) published during Covid, a vivid essay on creativity as it applies to all artistic endeavours, accompanied by 60 of her own remarkable bird paintings. Most recently, Nadina has released Colour Your Bassoon and Open Sky Bassoon, both featuring original drawings of 40 bassoonists and inspired by her 2025 tour of American universities.
Nadina Mackie Jackson Full Bio 2026
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Contact
Nadina Mackie is represented by Robert Baird of Baird Artists Management.
Contact: robert@bairdartists.com
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