Notable Contrabassoons
Prof. Dr. Werner Schulze of Austria owns a contrabassoon with an extension to A♭0, the note a half step below the lowest note on the piano.
In 2001, Bavarian instrument makers Guntram Wolf and Benedikt Eppelsheim began collaborating on the reworking of the contrabassoon, resulting in a new instrument they call the Contraforte. It has a larger bore, as well as larger tone holes, resulting in a slightly different tone from a normal contrabassoon. The Contraforte contains a natural extension down to A0, and several other features such as silent key movement and an automatic water drain. Lewis Lipnick, contrabassoonist for the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, played it in a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in October 2010.
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