John McDougall was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and having been presented with a bassoon upon entering secondary school at the age of 12, has never looked back. 

he went on to study full time at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), later moving to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Since then he has enjoyed a varied career in chamber ensembles, avant-garde contemporary music, orchestral freelancing and theatre work including 10 years with the original West End production of ‘Miss Saigon’ at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For over 20 years, John has been Principal Bassoon with the orchestra of English National Ballet, and since 2016 also Principal Bassoon with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

A career as a busy orchestral musician generally allows little time to embark on solo projects, but with the Covid-19 pandemic severely curtailing many aspects of life, including opportunities for musicians to work together, John saw the chance to explore some of the solo bassoon repertoire, and felt that this was the perfect time to finally record Francisco Mignone’s ’16 valse para fagote solo’, resulting in his debut release for Luminate Records.