Bassoonist Nik Hooks enjoys a varied career as a chamber, orchestra, and solo performer. He was the 2019 Grand Prize winner of the Sherman Walt Merit Award Competition and is an alumnus of Carnegie Hall’s prestigious Ensemble Connect fellowship. As Artistic Director of the Press Start Orchestra, Mr. Hooks is actively engaged with expanding the orchestral repertoire and building new audiences for classical music by making meaningful connections with the gaming community.

Recently appointed principal bassoon of the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Hooks has also performed with The Knights and the Princeton Symphony, and in renowned venues such as Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, and Boston’s Symphony Hall. Comfortable performing a wide range of genres, he has been proud to share the stage with artists such as Sandeep Das, Anthony Roth Constanza, Steven Banks, and The Afield.

Mr. Hooks has had opportunities to train with esteemed pedagogues at major orchestras including Judith Leclair of the New York Philharmonic and Richard Svoboda and Richard Ranti of the Boston Symphony. He holds a performer’s certificate from the Colburn School and a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory where his teachers included Richard Beene, Tom Novak, Ashley Heintzen, and Randy Doo.