OPO: You are going to play the solo at the beginning of The Rite of Spring this February. How do you prepare for something like that? Does it make you nervous?

DB: Of course it makes me nervous! But it’s what I’m trained to do. I have at least 6 recordings of Rite. Pretty soon I will start studying the different performances on each recording and start to get my own ideas of how I want to play it. I have performed it before (with the Florida Symphony), but it’s been a long time since I have worked on it. It starts with only the bassoon. The conductor comes on stage, and everything is silent. Then he will indicate I can start when I am ready, so there is a certain amount of control I will have in that moment, as opposed to a solo within a piece that has to be played on time with everyone else.

OPO: So you’ll be playing your solo surrounded by a huge orchestra, all silent and listening to you. Which is harder, playing in front of professional musicians, or playing for the audience members?

DB: I do feel pressure, as a principal musician, to always play my best so I don’t let down my colleagues or disappoint the audience. If my family and/or students are in the audience, I play for them. My family, especially, hears me practice and they know the work that has gone into preparing for concerts so I feel a certain satisfaction in having them hear the end result of my hard work.

Since working in the box office for so many years, I feel a personal connection with many of the patrons, too. I always want to do my part to make sure that the audience is never disappointed.

OPO: How does it feel to play a solo all by yourself on stage?

DB: It’s very similar to public speaking. You are introduced, you step up to the podium, you wait for the audience to settle down and then you start. You want to speak clearly, you don’t want to mumble or stumble over your words. If you tell a joke, you want people to laugh. You want to be an effective speaker so that people have understood your message and are satisfied by what you said.

OPO: How did you get started playing the bassoon? Did you come from a musical family?

DB: I started playing piano when I was 5 and took lessons until I was 18. I’m lucky my parents nurtured my musical interests, and that my elementary school had an extensive music program. I started playing the saxophone in the 4th grade, but quickly grew tired of it. I tried baritone, trombone, trumpet, flute, but none of them held my interest for very long. My father played trombone in a community band and he would let me attend their Monday evening rehearsals. There was a high school bassoonist in the band, and she would let me sit next to her and turn pages for her. I was intrigued by the instrument because she was the only bassoonist in the band. Anyone who knows me knows I have never been one to go along with the crowd. I liked to do things my own way and be noticed. Choosing the bassoon allowed me to do that.

So the summer after 5th grade, I borrowed a bassoon from the middle school and taught myself to play it. I was placed in the 8th grade band when school started. I made up a lot of my own fingerings and really didn’t know what I was doing, but I was having fun.

I have to add that, after about a year of playing the bassoon, I told my parents that I wanted to learn the oboe and they refused to buy me any more instruments since I already had a closet full. I stuck with the bassoon.

I have two sisters and a brother. We all studied music through our school years. Only my older sister and I majored in music in college.

OPO: Did you always know you wanted to be a professional musician?

DB: No! I really had no intention of pursuing music until I was a junior in high school. Up until that time, I was planning on a career in science or the medical field, although I had no real passion for either. Everyone expected me to go into music, but as I have stated earlier, I like to do things my own way and in my own time. One night, while struggling through chemistry homework, it dawned on me that if I was struggling with high school chemistry, I was pretty much doomed and that I had better stick to the one thing that I was good at. It was a true “light bulb moment” and one I will never forget.

OPO: You’ve been with the Philharmonic a long time, and were part of the Florida Symphony, too, right?

DB: I feel like I have grown up in Orlando. The OPO is a huge part of my life. I joined the Florida Symphony in 1984 at the age of 23! I was just about the youngest person in the orchestra. During the course of the next 10 years, I met my husband, got married and had Emily. In fact, I had just returned from maternity leave when the FSO folded. The first OPO concert took place on my first Mother’s Day, in 1993.

OPO: What is your favorite part about this orchestra?

DB: I like that I am able to participate in all aspects of the organization. I know what it takes to put a concert together, from conception to performance. I feel a real sense of ownership and pride in what we do. My favorite parts? My younger colleagues, both in the office and in the orchestra, are helping to keep me young and excited about what I do. My two bosses, David Schillhammer and Christopher Wilkins, are both amazing at what they do. I am so thankful that I work for them. Being able to do what I love to do – playing the bassoon – and getting paid to do it makes me very happy!

OPO: Both of your kids are musicians, right? What do they play?

DB: My daughter Emily is 19 and a sophomore in college. She is majoring in English and with a minor in Vocal Performance. She also studied violin from kindergarten through 12th grade and played in the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra for most of that time. My son Matthew is a senior in high school. He started playing piano in the 1st grade and studied privately until last year when he had to quit due to his crazy course load in school. He has also played the bassoon since the 6th grade, plays in the school band and the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra. He hopes to continue bassoon in college, although he will be majoring in engineering.

OPO: How do you balance being a mom, a principal musician AND the Director of Patron Services? Are there parallels between playing the bassoon and the other things you do in life?

DB: It hasn’t been easy to balance things in my life and I’m not sure that I’m too good at it. I do know that I couldn’t do it without my incredibly supportive husband. When our kids were in elementary school, I wasn’t working in the box office so I had lots of time to devote to them and their activities. I started working part-time in the box office to earn a little extra money. Within about a year, I was running the box office. I’m still not exactly sure how that happened!

I work very long days. During much of the season, I often work 12-14 hour days, including Saturdays and Sundays. I usually practice in the evening after dinner. I have been known to take box office work to rehearsals and I often take work home with me. Customers will often get email responses from me at odd hours. They think I am in the office working, but in reality I’m probably home in my pajamas!

OPO: What do you enjoy doing when you are not playing bassoon or working at the Box Office?

DB: My husband and I both love to travel, but haven’t had much of an opportunity to do so in a while. We hope to get back to Europe, especially England, in the next couple of years. My perfect day is being at home with my family, reading a good book, having a cup of tea, making dinner for my family and watching a movie together.

 Diane Bishop, Principal Bassoonist
Theodore R. Hassen Principal Bassoon Chair

Diane Bishop (Bassoon) has been Principal bassoonist of the Orlando Philharmonic since 1993. Originally from Bel Air, Maryland, she began her musical studies at the age of five with the piano, also playing saxophone, flute, and trombone, before finally discovering the bassoon at age ten. In high school she studied at the Peabody Conservatory’s Preparatory department while a student of Brent Rickman of the Baltimore Symphony.

She received a Bachelor of Music Degree with Distinction in 1983 from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where she was a student of K. David Van Hoesen, formerly of the Cleveland and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras. While at Eastman, Mrs. Bishop was Co-Principal Bassoonist of the Eastman Philharmonic during its 1983 northeast United States tour and subsequent recording, including concerts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. She was also Principal Bassoonist of the Heidelberg Opera Festival Orchestra in Germany, of which the Eastman Philharmonia is resident orchestra. After graduating from Eastman, Mrs. Bishop was awarded a graduate assistantship from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she studied with Frank Morelli, Principal Bassoonist of the New York City Opera and Orpheus Chamber Orchestras. She has also studied with David Carroll, formerly of the New York Philharmonic.

In 1984 Mrs. Bishop was named Principal Bassoonist of the Florida Symphony Orchestra. While in the FSO, she appeared several times as soloist, including on its Masterworks Series during the 1987 – 88 season.

Mrs. Bishop has also played with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, Florida Orchestra and the Breckenridge Music Institute Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado. She has been on the faculties of the University of Central Florida and Seminole Community College. She and her husband, John, have two children, Emily and Matthew.