The Nashville Double Reed Ensemble was founded by its artistic director Dewayne Pigg on April 19, 2003. The NDRE is an ensemble that has performed at many different venues in the Nashville area. Some of these notable sites are Lipscomb University, Middle Tennessee State University, Nashville Public Library, Bachanalia festival at Christ Church Cathedral, and "Live in Studio C " at WPLN public radio. The NDRE has had several notable performers and teachers in the double reed world such as Mark Ostoich, oboe, Cincinnati Conservatory; Arthur Weisberg, bassoon, Indiana University; Jonathan Dlouhy, Atlanta Symphony; and Chris Weait, bassoon, Ohio State University, perform in concert within the ranks of the ensemble. The NDRE is looking forward to having Jeff Rathbun of the Cleveland Orchestra and Steve Wilson of the National Symphony Orchestra from Washington D.C. join us in two performances in April 2009 on the campus of Lipscomb University (music.lipscomb.edu). The ensemble includes oboes, oboe d'amore, English horns, bassoons, and contrabassoons. The NDRE is best characterized by its unique instrumentation and its colorful tonal richness. It was Dewayne's interest to bring together some of Nashville's leading free-lance oboists and bassoonists to play good double reed literature, to help educate the public about double reeds, to encourage double reed playing in school music programs, and to have fun making music together.

The ensemble has an extensive melange of career interests within its participants. There is an engineer, Nashville school music teacher, band director, retired band director, free-lance musicians, adjunct and full-time music faculties on university campuses, and orchestra players.

It is the dream of the NDRE to serve as a model for the development of other double reed ensembles throughout the nation. "While we cherish our involvement and recognition in the Nashville and surrounding communities, we look forward to earning a national interest in our ensemble and our brand of music. We will perform original works from different style periods and genre. We will also perform arrangements and transcriptions by ensemble members, local arrangers, national and international composers and arrangers, and student arrangers from the area."

The players are Dewayne Pigg (oboe, oboe d'amore, English horn), Margie Yankeelov (oboe, English horn), Robby Shankle (oboe, English horn), Laura Boucher (oboe), Amanda Thompson (oboe, English horn), Nicole McVey (oboe, English horn), Jeff Smith (oboe, English horn), Rachel Maczko (oboe), Miriam Lense (oboe), Sally Reid (English horn), Kate Affainie (bassoon), Wilson Sharpe (bassoon), Harold Skelton (bassoon), Dong-Yun Kwon (bassoon), Patricia Gunter (bassoon, contrabassoon), and Andrew Witherington (bassoon, contrabassoon). Stephen Rhodes and Gerald Moore, conductors.

Kate Affainie, bassoon

Kate is a freelance professional bassoonist and music specialist in the Mid-TN area.  She has a Bachelor from Ball State University and a Master from Cincinnati Conservatory.  She has also earned her teaching license from Belmont University.  She has freelanced with the Cincinnati and Nashville orchestras and the Nashville Opera.  Kate was the former principal bassoon with the Richmond, IN and Lexington, KY orchestras.  She has been a music specialist at Granberry Elementary for 12 years.  She is married to Paul and has a daughter named Elese with a dog named Little Bit.  Her hobbies are gardening, reading, chocolate, and horses.

Laura Boucher, oboe

Laura Boucher has enjoyed living in Nashville for the past nine years.  She is a graduate of Tennessee Technological University with a degree in Instrumental Music Education.  She then went on to receive her Master in Wind Conducting from Indiana State University.  Laura is currently one of the band directors at McGavock High School in Nashville, Tennessee.  Additionally, she plays as a free-lance musician and teaches private oboe lessons.  She recently served as an adjunct oboe instructor at Tennessee State University and Western Kentucky University.

Patricia Gunter; bassoon, contrabassoon

Ms. Patricia Gunter has been Adjunct Instructor of Music (bassoon) at the Belmont University School of Music since 1982.  Her musical career began at age five with the piano.  Patricia's best friend's mother was a local minister's wife/piano teacher.  The young pianist career was cut short when the family moved to St. Louis and the piano remained in Oak Ridge.  She discovered the bassoon in high school.  It lured her away from the flute and she went on to receive her Master's degree in bassoon from Indiana University.

Ms. Gunter was a member of the Nashville Symphony from 1981 - 2003.  She currently freelances in Kentucky, Indiana, and Alabama.  Patricia teaches bassoon at Tennessee State University.  Ms. Gunter is a member of the Nashville Double Reed Ensemble and the instigator of "Bassoonery" ,  a local bassoon quintet.  She also teaches bassoon at two of Nashville's local magnet schools: Hume Fogg and Martin Luther King.  Ms. Gunter is one of the founding members of Belmont's faculty woodwind quintet.  She also performs with Belmont's Camerata Musicale and Opus 5, a local woodwind quintet.

Dong-Yun Kwon, bassoon

Dong-Yun Kwon who resides in Nashville and serves as adjunct professor of bassoon at Campbellsville University in Kentucky.  She is currently principal bassoonist with the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra and the Paducah Symphony Orchestra.  She hold degrees in bassoon performance from Catholic University in her native Korea and Rotterdam Royal Conservatorium in Holland.  Ms. Kwon served as principal bassoonist with Pusan Philharmonic and the KBS Symphony Orchestra from 1983 to 2001 and was the founding member of the Korea Women's Woodwind Quintet.  She is well known internationally as a recording artists, soloist, and teacher.