Wren Saunders

Wren Saunders is the bassoon Artist Faculty at the University of Southern Maine, Osher School of Music. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern Maine and a Master of Music from New England Conservatory of Music, both in bassoon performance. In addition, to her music degrees, Ms. Saunders holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Maine School of Law and is a licensed attorney. As a performer, Ms. Saunders is currently principal bassoon of the Bangor Symphony and Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra (MA), and formerly associate principal of the Knoxville Symphony (TN). In 2007 and 2023 she was a concerto soloist with the Bangor Symphony. An active freelancer, she has played with the region’s top orchestras including the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), Portland Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Opera Maine, and Vermont Symphony among others.Ms. Saunders has a vibrant and successful bassoon studio where her students are regularly accepted into the USM Youth Ensembles and the NEC Youth Philharmonic and Boston Youth Symphony ensembles in Massachusetts. She has had six students chosen to perform on NPR’s From the Top, a national radio show featuring exceptional high school classical musicians. She also teaches general music at Kennebunk Elementary School. When Ms. Saunders is not making or teaching music, she can be found in her kitchen cooking her way through Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking or on the golf course, most recently having competed in the 2026 Maine Women’s Amateur Open.