Christopher Jewell is the Assistant Principal Bassoonist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. An active performer in the Washington, DC area, Mr. Jewell also regularly performs with the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, Post Classical Ensemble, Wolf Trap Opera Company, and the Chesapeake Chamber Orchestra. He has previously served as Principal Bassoonist of the Missouri Chamber Orchestra and has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, New World Symphony, and Aspen Festival and Chamber Orchestras. Mr. Jewell has appeared as a soloist with the American Youth Symphonic Orchestra as well as with ensembles at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago and at the Missouri Music Educators Association Convention. He serves on the faculty at George Mason University and Catholic University.  

As a clinician and adjudicator, he has served as a judge for the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Woodwinds Competition and has presented masterclasses for the DC Youth Orchestra and at schools throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area. He has additionally taught masterclasses at James Madison University and the University of Missouri, and was honored to coach students at the Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony in Caracas, Venezuela, under Gustavo Dudamel.

An avid chamber musician, he has performed at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Georgetown University’s Friday Music Series, and the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and has been featured on WETA’s Front Row Washington. He has also performed with ensembles at the International Double Reed Society and Texas Music Educators Association Conventions. Mr. Jewell earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia where he studied with Barbara Wood and Edward Dolbashian. He continued his studies at the Manhattan School of Music with Patricia Rogers, Principal Bassoonist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.