Michael Roemhildt is a graduate of Minnesota State University-Mankato where he earned both a B.S. in music education and a M.M. in bassoon performance. His teachers included Anne Pesavento of Gustavus Adolphus College, Lester Davis of the Minnesota Orchestra, and John Miller, Jr., former Principal Bassoon of the Minnesota Orchestra.
He has held positions in various regional orchestras; Mankato Symphony, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, and for over thirty years as Principal Bassoon of the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra. His solo credits include the Vanhal Concerto for Bassoon with the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra and the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra.
Michael has previously taught music as a band director in various schools across Minnesota for thirty-four years before retiring in 2014 as Denfeld High School’s band director. His higher education teaching has included positions at UMD, College of St. Scholastica, and the University of Wisconsin-Superior. An accomplished reed maker, Michael has turned his reed-making skills into a small business, Roemhildt Reeds, supplying bassoonists across the country with hand-crafted reeds.
Outside of music education, Michael has been active in Union activities, serving as a local teacher’s union president and chief negotiator, Secretary-Treasurer of the Northeast UniServe of Education Minnesota, and currently Secretary-Treasurer of Local 18 of the AFM (American Federation of Musicians), Duluth Musicians Association. In addition to his reed making and union work, Michael is also developing his skills as a piano tuner and technician, servicing pianos in the Cloquet and Duluth areas.
Michael has enjoyed many different passions throughout his life. He has run numerous full and half marathons backpacked sections of the Appalachian Trail, the Lake Superior Hiking Trail and the Superstition Mountain Wilderness in Arizona. He has also brewed beer with gusto, delved into genealogy, fished, golfed, hunted, acted in community theater, enjoyed wilderness canoeing, and loves to travel. His life motto is “Life is not a dress rehearsal”.