Theodore Soluri became the principal bassoonist of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2004. Prior to his appointment, he held the same position with the Canton Symphony Orchestra (Ohio), the Akron Symphony Orchestra, and the Wheeling Symphony (West Virginia). Mr. Soluri is also the principal bassoonist of the Santa Fe Opera. As a soloist, Mr. Soluri has performed numerous works with orchestra, including Mozart's Concerto for Bassoon in Bb major, KV. 191; Carl Maria von Weber's Bassoon Concerto in F major; Ferdinand David's Concertino; Richard Strauss' Duett-concertino for clarinet, bassoon, strings and harp; and Michael Daugherty's Dead Elvis. He will be performing the Mozart concerto with the MSO this season in early January.

Throughout his career, Mr. Soluri has attended many music festivals, including the National Repertory Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. In 1994, he was privileged to work under Sir Georg Solti at Carnegie Hall as a member of the prestigious Solti Orchestral Project. In the summer of 2005, Mr. Soluri was invited to play as principal bassoonist for three weeks at The Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This past summer he performed for the first time at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Soluri has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he had the opportunity to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on their East Coast Tour to Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York City's Carnegie Hall in 2005 and has since played several concerts with them. In 2006, Mr. Soluri performed two recitals to great acclaim at the International Double Reed Society (IDRS) conference in Muncie, Indiana at Ball State University. Both recitals included pieces not originally written for the bassoon, but rather for the voice, including several opera arias by Puccini and Donizetti as well as Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines farhenden Gesellen and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Vocalise. Also in 2006, Mr. Soluri had the pleasure of taking part in a CD project led by fellow MSO musician William Barnewitz. The CD entitled The Long Road Home is a benefit for Parkinson's disease research. For the disc, Mr. Soluri performed on Mozart's Quintet for piano and winds in Eb major.

In addition to performing, Mr. Soluri teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), and the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. Over the past several years, Mr. Soluri has given several master classes at The Florida State University, the Eastman School of Music, and Ball State University. This year he will also be giving a master class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, he will be performing faculty recitals at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Roosevelt University. Mr. Soluri can also be heard on several chamber music concerts as a part of the Chamber Music Milwaukee series at UWM. Mr. Soluri received his Bachelor of Music degree from The Florida State University and his Master of Music degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music. His teachers were John Hunt, Jeffrey Keesecker and David McGill. Besides his bassoon teachers, Mr. Soluri credits soprano Maria Callas as one of his greatest musical inspirations.