Bassoonist Sergio Azzolini is one of Europe's most prominent performers on his instrument. He plays both modern and historical bassoons, and he is also a noted educator.
Azzolini was born in 1967 in the northern Italian city of Bolzano. As a child, he gravitated toward painting, but his mother, believing that music would provide more stable employment in the remote Alpine city where there were few bassoonists, encouraged his talent on this instrument. Azzolini enrolled in 1978 at the city's Conservatorio Claudio Monteverdi, studying with Romano Santi until 1985. He moved on t...