Gustavo Núñez (born in Montevideo, 15 February 1965) is a Uruguayan bassoonist trained at Musikhochschule Hannover (Prof. Klaus Thunemann) and the Royal College of Music (Kerry Camden). He has served as principal bassoon of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, together with Ronald Karten, since 1995.
Núñez was previously a member of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra (1979–1981), the orchestra of the Staatstheater Darmstadt (1988–1989) and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (1989–1995).
Currently, he holds a professorship at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, Germany. Since 2016, he is also a professor at the Reina Sofía School of Music’s Bassoon Chair in Madrid.[1]
Núñez gives masterclasses and has made solo appearances in the US, Canada, various South American countries, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland, Australia, South Korea and Japan and is considered to be one of the greatest bassoonists of all time.[2]
Born in Uruguay, Gustavo Núñez moved with his family to Venezuela at the age of five, an event that can be considered an escape. His father, who was on the blacklist of the Uruguayan intelligence service at the time, refused to perform at the American embassy with his wind quintet as a protest against the Vietnam War, leading to serious consequences for the family.
In Venezuela, Núñez began his musical education. Despite the initial challenges of moving, such as missing his old school and friends, he found a silver lining in the opportunities his new home offered. His father played in the Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela and taught at a French private school with a strong emphasis on music, where Gustavo and his brother also attended. Gustavo, initially learning to play the violin, switched to the bassoon - a choice inspired by the fact that his father played this instrument.
These early experiences in Venezuela laid the foundation for Núñez's later success. At the age of sixteen, he followed his brother Alejandro Núñez, a professional horn player, to London and subsequently received a scholarship for the prestigious bassoon class of Klaus Thunemann in Hannover. His connection to the Concertgebouworkest, which he knew from a young age through the records played at home, was reinforced by his admiration for Brian Pollard and Joep Terwey, former bassoonists of the orchestra. Núñez's path to the Concertgebouworkest, however, was not without obstacles. Before joining the orchestra, he was the principal bassoonist at the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the Bamberger Symphoniker.