As he recalls, when Fraser Jackson was choosing an instrument in middle school, he looked “at this weird bassoon, and nobody else was playing it. So I thought, okay, I’ll play this for a year.” That “year” turned into a dedicated 35-year (and counting!) career with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Fraser’s path to the bassoon began as a family affair. Both his parents were amateur musicians who enrolled the whole family in a summer music camp in Quebec run by Canadian Amateur Musicians, Musiciens amateurs du Canada (CAMMAC), where Fraser himself now teaches. His musical journey started there, but it wasn’t until high school, with the guidance of a mentor at the National Arts Centre Orchestra, that he truly connected with the bassoon. Yet life has a way of throwing curveballs: “I went to a music camp at 16 and realized how many others were playing the bassoon—and better than me,” Fraser remembers. This was a wake-up call that briefly pushed him off his musical path, even leading him to study engineering for two years before his passion ultimately drew him back to music.
Beyond performing, Fraser is a hands-on creator and problem solver, a skill set he’s channelled into everything from home renovations and cooking, to arranging music and even painting—an art form he hopes to revisit now that his son is older. “I’m running out of excuses not to get back into it,” he jokes.
When he thinks about music’s role in people’s lives, Fraser sees it as a powerful means of escape. “No one’s life is so perfect that they don’t need a break,” he says. For him, classical music challenges listeners in rewarding ways. “It’s difficult sometimes, but that’s part of it. Sometimes, where it takes you is more satisfying because you had to work a little harder to get there.”
Learn more about Fraser in our latest installment of Meet the Orchestra:
