Bassoonist David A. Wells has extremely wide-ranging musical tastes, abilities, and experiences. Currently, he is mostly engaged in historically-informed performances on period bassoons ranging from the 17th to the early 20th centuries with groups including the Carmel Bach Festival, American Bach Soloists, Sinfonia Spirituosa, Sacramento Baroque Soloists, Aston Magna Festival, and Philharmonie Austin. He is also an adept performer on the modern bassoon and contrabassoon, equally at home with standard orchestral/chamber/solo repertoire and demanding modern works involving extended techniques and/or electronics. In addition, Wells has a predilection for taking the bassoon to unexpected places, most notably having spent nine years in the Django Reinhardt-inspired swing sextet Hot Club Faux Gitane.

Wells serves as Co-Executive Director of Meg Quigley, an organization devoted to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion within the bassoon world. He is also active as a music scholar, having presented papers at the conferences of the American Musicological Society, the Society for American Music, and the International Double Reed Society. Wells is on faculty at California State University, Sacramento, where he teaches bassoon and music history. When not playing or teaching, he can be found swimming (in the ocean with the Kelp Krawlers when in Carmel), taking photographs, collecting records, and trying to keep up with his super-librarian/yogi wife, Veronica.