<p>Our son is in the Cleveland Orchestra youth Orchestra as a bassoonist. We r currently looking for schools as well and have found similar schools to what everyone else is saying to be very viable options.(Eastman is great…visited and loved it) Rice came very highly recommended, Curtis, BUT the one that no one has mentioned that has a FABULOUS reputation (per the Interlochen folks, Cleveland Orchestra folks etc) is The University of Michigan! We plan to visit in March because they will allow our son to dual major in Performance and Education. He wants to perform, but knows that having education under his belt will help with the studio teaching. Check out U of Michigan! Bassoon teacher there is the head of the entire music school which is very well known… If we had to choose one place though, it would be the Cleveland Institute of Music. Barrick Stees was taught under Van Hoesen (Eastman retired) who was the guru of bassoon methods back a few years 
John Huntsman at Eastman also learned under Van Hoesen and we have met BOTH of these guys and not only are they very personable they are wonderful teachers (our son had a one hour lesson as part of the visit). …Good luck.</p>