Charles Ullery

Charles Ullery was principal bassoonist of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra from 1975 until his retirement in 2017. Prior to that, he was a member of the San Francisco Symphony and the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio of San Francisco. He is a frequent soloist with the SPCO, and many composers have written works for him, including Michael Daugherty, Daniel Sturm, Russell Platt, Jay Reise, William Wallace, Erika Foin, Akmal Parwez and Daniel S. Godfrey. Ullery has appeared at the Sarasota Music Festival, the Utah Festival, the Rockport Festival, the Aspen Festival, and the Carnegie Hall Festival. Since the summer of 1976, he has been principal bassoon of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in Jackson, Wyoming. He spent the 1987-88 season as a faculty member at Oberlin College in Ohio, and has been an affiliate faculty member at the University of Minnesota. Ullery graduated cum laude in mathematics from the University of Arizona at age 19, and started graduate work in mathematics at UCLA before entering the Army Band. His bassoon teachers included Wendal Jones, Gordon Solie, and Norman Herzberg.