Garrett McQueen has been teaching and playing the bassoon in his hometown of Memphis and across the country since 1999. As well as performing as a member of the South Arkansas Symphony, American Youth Symphony, Memphis Repertory Orchestra, and the Eroica Ensemble, he has worked with groups including the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Jackson (TN) Symphony Orchestra, Brentwood-Westwood Symphony Orchestra, West Covina Symphony, the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, the Southeast Symphony (Los Angeles), and is the latest winner of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Fellowship for an African-American musician. He has also enjoyed giving multiple solo recitals, performing with the Godiva Woodwind Quintet, USC Scholarship Quintet, and Cooper-Young Winds, giving master classes, serving as adjudicator for West Tennessee Band auditions, and teaching a studio of flutists/oboists/bassoonists consisting of middle school, high school, and undergraduate college students. He has performed in multiple Broadway Musicals in Memphis under the baton of David Spencer and keeps himself busy in other freelance activities, including being featured in Indie Rock tracks produced by Goner Records (2009) and True Panther Sounds (2010), and appearing on Fox's television show, "Glee."
His affinity for 20th and 21st century music drives his passion for playing the bassoon, and in a performance of Eric Ewazen’s “Concerto for Bassoon and Wind Ensemble,” Ewazen noted his “wonderful playing” and characterized McQueen as someone who “gives a great performance of [his] piece.” He’s also been noted as one of America’s “most interesting classical musicians” by conductor and author of “The Real Toscanini: Musicians Reveal the Maestro,” Cesare Civetta.
McQueen's teachers and mentors include Ron Turner, Paula Turner, and Mike McKenzie, all local musicians and teachers in the Memphis area. He studied bassoon with internationally acclaimed bassoonists, Lecolion Washington and Judith Farmer.
Garrett McQueen’s objectives for the future are numerous. With a large background in Music Education, it is one of his goals to earn a Doctorate of Musical Arts, and to become a professor of bassoon in the United States. McQueen also hopes to play and even commission new works for bassoon, and to be involved in the growing Wind Ensemble repertory throughout his career.
McQueen has a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Memphis, a Master of Music degree from the University of Southern California, and currently performs with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Cooper-Young Wind Quintet, Memphis Repertory Orchestra, and Twitter Symphony.