Australian born Lorelei Dowling, bassoonist and contrabassoonist, is a world-renowned contemporary specialist. She was a member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and has played with L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchester-RSO Wien, Lausanne and Munich Chamber Orchestras to name but a few. Since1994 she has been the bassoonist and contrafortist of Austria’s full time contemporary ensemble, Klangforum Wien. Lorelei has given lecture-recitals and master classes around the world most notably at Manhattan School of Music, Singapore University; Venice Conservatoire; Paris Conservatoire; Hong Kong; Royal Northern College of Music, San Sebastian Musikene and for the International Double Reed Society in Ithaca, Wisconsin and Birmingham. She has also been the international guest bassoonist at the British Double Reed Society convention in Birmingham.

Her CD. I was Like WOW, includes world premiere recordings from Billone, Staud, Kats-Chernin and Jacob TV. She is currently a doctorate candidate at KUG and was selected to present her doctoral project (the contraforte) at the 2019 Association of European Conservatoriums (AEC) conference in Romania and in 2021 at the “Doctors in Performance” (DIP) conference in Estonia. From 2013-18, Dowling was the bassoon instrumental lecturer for the Masters in Composition at Centro Superior Katarina Gurska in Madrid. She teaches bassoon/contrabassoon in Graz University (Kunst-Universitat Graz) and Vienna (Musik und Kunst Privaruniversitat de Stadt Wien) and is currently on the International Double Reed Society commissioning committee. Since 2018, Dowling is a guest on the Faculty of the Lucerne Festival Academy. In 2023, she will attend the International Double Reed Society Conference at Bangkok Mahidol University, lecturing on the contraforte.