CCM Bassoon and Flute alums win orchestra positions at Minnesota Opera

“I am so excited for this next chapter!” Yang said in an Instagram post announcing her new position. “I love playing opera music so, so much!”

Having most recently held the principal bassoon position in Colorado’s Central City Opera Orchestra, Yang spoke about the numerous opportunities she has had to play in opera pits throughout the years.

“I was fortunate to get to play in CCM’s production of Così fan tutte, [as well as] two different opera festivals as a student.” Yang boasts an impressive performance resume, including such works as Madama Butterfly, The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. “My favorite opera pit experience was getting to play the famous bassoon solo in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore,” she says. “I played this opera at a small outdoor opera festival in northern Germany. I’ve been really fortunate to get so much opera experience as a young musician!”

Peterson also had the opportunity to perform over-seas when she attended CCM’s Spoleto Festival in Italy in the summer of 2011. “We played one of my all-time favorite pieces, Mahler 1, for an audience that included Mahler’s granddaughter!” she recalls.

In addition to her prolific performance career, Yang has also created an amazingly successful bassoon reed making business called Jiffy Reeds. “It was definitely an unplanned part of my career,” Yang says of becoming a reed maker. “When COVID shut everything down, my husband and I decided to change our 5-year plan and have a baby in 2021, and I decided to step down from all my playing positions to be a full-time parent.” After moving to Denver in 2022, Yang had the idea to start making reeds as a way to stay involved in the music industry that fit within her busy schedule as a new parent.

“I was shocked by how quickly business picked up. It’s a tiny niche (I sometimes feel silly explaining to non-musicians what I sell), but there was definitely an unmet need in the bassoon reed market. I had a wide network of bassoonists, professors and educators around the country who tried Jiffy Reeds and then recommended my shop to their students and colleagues. I sold over 1500 reeds last year.”

Yang says that she is grateful for her success as a reed maker, and the effects that it has had on her as a performer. “I’ve always got at least a couple great reeds in my case, and my reed-making skills have only gotten better with so much repetition!” Since starting Jiffy Reeds, Yang has won principal positions with the Central City Opera Orchestra, and now the Minnesota Opera Orchestra.