Howarth Artists

Sherie Lake Aguirre, recently retired, began her career as Principal oboist of the Virginia Symphony in 1987. She graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor’s degree in Performance and continued her graduate studies with Ray Still at Northwestern University.

Ms. Aguirre held principal positions with the Singapore Symphony, La Sinfonica de Maracaibo, La Sinfonica de Tenerife, and La Sinfonica de Madrid. She appeared regularly as soloist with the VSO and performed frequently in the Chamber Music series of the Virginia Arts Festival. From 1990 to 1997 she spent her summers in Boulder, performing with the Colorado Music Festival. Ms. Aguirre has also performed and recorded several CD’s with the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival in Florida.

Sherie also maintains a private teaching studio full of young, local, talented oboe students in addition to fulfilling adjunct faculty positions at William and Mary College and Old Dominion University.

Ruby Ashley is a lecturer in oboe studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. She has extensive experience in training students who become national prize-winners and members of professional orchestras in Ireland and Europe.

Ruby studied with Janet Craxton and subsequently at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. She continued her studies at the Nordwestdeutsche Musik-akademie and with Ray Still in Chicago, USA. In 1982 Ruby attended Goldsmiths College, London University to undertake orchestral studies at the National Centre for Orchestral Studies gaining the Diploma in Orchestral Studies in 1983. Ruby completed her Masters Degree in music in 2008; her specialist study was oboe reeds.

Ruby was a founding member of one of Ireland’s most respected and active chamber ensembles, the Degani Ensemble. For Music Network, the Degani Ensemble has toured extensively, including performances with soprano Cara O’Sullivan.

Dr. Rachel Becker is Assistant Professor of Music History at the University of Northern Colorado. She previously was Assistant Professor of Musicology and Oboe at Boise State University. Rachel received her PhD from the University of Cambridge, and her MM in Oboe Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Rachel’s academic work centres on issues of genre, virtuosity, gender, popularity, and the development of woodwind instruments, engaging with performance studies, peripheries of the canon, and continued bias in “acceptable music” within the study of Western art music. Her current projects focus on current societal resonances of historical musical criticism – including in the gendering of musical instruments and of genres in contemporary Western society – and on networks of female performers in the nineteenth century.

Her first book, Valuing Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera Fantasias for Woodwind Instruments, was published by Routledge in March 2024. She also has published in the International Double Reed Society journal as well as in other journals.

Rachel is active as a performing oboist. She has recently performed with the Colorado Bach Ensemble, Boise Philharmonic, and Opera Idaho, as well as with local orchestras such as the Greeley Philharmonic and the Boulder Symphony. She has played with the King’s College and St John’s College, Cambridge choirs, and with the Philharmonia Orchestra as a part of the King’s College 500 celebrations. She has worked with conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Peter Donohoe, Paul Daniel, and Howard Shelley and has performed in Cadogan Hall and King’s Place, London. She also performed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where she premiered Tim Watts’ opera Kepler’s Trial.

Alaster Bentley, former Principal Oboe of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, was born in London in 1957 and started piano lessons at the age of four. Encouraged by his parents, he took up the oboe after hearing the great English oboist Leon Goossens at the age of 11. He studied at the Central Tutorial School for Young Musicians (now the Purcell School), studying with oboist Edwin Roxburgh and the London Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Oboe, Barry Davies.

In 1974 Alaster became an Associate of the Royal College of Music, entering the same institution that year, to study with Sydney ‘Jock’ Sutcliffe. Whilst a student, he won first prize at the International Summer School, Canterbury. This lead directly to post-graduate studies in Paris with Maurice Bourgue. Alaster also took part in a master class with Heinz Holliger.

After freelancing, Alaster was offered the post of Principal Oboe with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, a post he held for over 40 years. He has performed in concerts with the orchestra, with Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Royal Ballet, as well as with many visiting ballet companies, including the Australian Ballet, Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet, and the Kirov and Bolshoi companies. He has also performed on the orchestras many recordings of ballet music and British light music.

As a teacher, Alaster has held positions with Berkshire Education Authority, Stowe School, Oxford High School for Girls and given master classes at Birmingham Conservatoire.

Karen Birch Blundell is an active freelancer who enjoys performing on both oboe and English horn. She is the English horn player for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic and is a member of Double Entendre Music Ensemble. Each summer, she travels to Greensboro, NC to serve as Associate Principal Oboe/English horn of the prestigious Eastern Music Festival. While at EMF, she performed Miguel De Aquila’s English horn concerto Broken Rondo as a faculty soloist with the Young Artists orchestra.

Karen performs throughout the Northeast with ensembles including Amor Artis, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, New Camerata Opera and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

Prior to her time in NY, Karen was Second Oboe/English horn with the Sarasota Orchestra. She regularly guested with neighboring orchestras including the Florida Orchestra and the Naples Philharmonic. She travelled to St. Croix as a featured artist for the Whim Candlelight Concert Series and spent three summers as Principal Oboe with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico City. She has been a guest musician with the American Symphony, The Riverside Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Houston Ballet Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Pops where she was honored to don one of their famous red jackets.

Beyond the Classical realm, Karen has toured the US with the New Sousa Band and been a back up musician for mega stars including Bernadette Peters, Idina Menzel, Mannheim Steamroller and The Who.

Karen holds a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory, a Master of Music from the Hartt School of Music and completed a fellowship at the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. Her teachers include James Caldwell, Alex Klein, Humbert Lucarelli and Robert Atherholt.

Christopher Blake was born in Brisbane, Australia, and started playing the oboe when he was 11 while living in Scotland. Three years later he won a scholarship to study oboe at Douglas Academy Music School with Philip Hill (Principal oboe with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra). When he was 15, he won the Scottish and Northern Ireland woodwind final for the BBC competition, Young Musician of the Year.

Between 1984-88 Christopher Blake held a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with the oboist David Theodore (Principal of the London Philharmonic). During this time he gained valuable experience playing Principal Oboe with the Young Musicians’ Symphony Orchestra – he was soloist while on tour to Italy.

In 1988, Christopher Blake began his professional career, working with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. At this time he auditioned for Principal Oboe of the Ulster Orchestra and was appointed a few months later. It was through the Orchestra that he met his future wife Claire, one of the Orchestra’s first violins. Christopher and Claire now have two children, Anna aged 16 and Alex aged 12 .

Christopher’s concerto performances with the Ulster Orchestra include the Richard Strauss Concerto with Vernon Handley, the Mozart and Strauss concertos conducted by Carlos Colmar and recently the Vaughan Williams concerto conducted by James Macmillan. He’s also performed the Bach Double Concerto with ex-leader’s Lesley Hatfield and David Adams and more recently with the Ulster Orchestra’s current leader, Tamas Kocsis. Christopher also loves playing chamber music and has played in various groups within the Orchestra including wind octets, quintets, and for the last two years has appeared with the Orion Duo and Praeger Oboe Quartet.

Christopher has played guest Principal oboe with many of the UK’s Orchestra’s including BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, The Halle, The Scottish Chamber and the Philharmonia in August 2011.

Principal Oboe of the Orchestra del Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Third Prize at Concours International d’Execution Musicale de Genève 1998, Première Prix de Virtuositè at Conservatoire National Superièure de Genève under the guidance of Maurice Bourgue, Rossana is one of the most outstanding italian oboists. She started her professional career at the age of 21, obtaining the position of Solo Oboe at ORT Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Florence, where she played until 1997, when she won her current position in Venice.

She widened her experience as guest Principal in many leading European orchestras, such as Royal Concertgebow Amsterdam, Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony, Bayerische Staatsoper, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Orchestra Mozart with Claudio Abbado, Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Thanks to this collaborations she had the opportunity to play under the baton of L.Maazel, M.W.Chung, Z.Metha, M.Jansson, G.Pretre, D.Harding, J.Temirkanov, R.Muti.

By invitation of M°Ivan Fischer, she bacame member of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, taking part in several recordings and tours all over the world. As soloist she plays on regular basis with I Solisti Veneti since 2001; furthermore, she performed in front of ORT, Orchestra da Camera di Mantova, Sofa Philarmonic Orchestra, USA Army Wind Orchestra (Washington), and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra with Claudio Abbado. She performed also with her Orchestra in Venice the Strauss, Martinu, Maderna and Bach Oboe Concertos.

Aside from her profession as a performer, Rossana is a dedicate teacher, giving Masterclasses in various institutions in Italy, Australia and Venezuela, on invitation of prof. Abreu, founder of ‘El Sistema Nacional para las Orquestas Juveniles y Infantiles de Venezuela’.

Ari Cohen Mann (they/them) serves up “brilliant virtuosity” (The Whole Note) through their playing and brightness and optimism through their popular social media channels. Ari has been hailed as the “Jonathan Van Ness of the oboe” (CBC Music), proudly championing their queer identity and serving as a role model for LGBTQ youth. Ari is a dynamic recitalist, new music proponent, orchestral musician, and educator based in Toronto. Ari was recently named on CBC’s 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30. 

With playing described as “emotionally charged” (Ludwig van Toronto), Ari is passionate about advancing the instrument as a solo voice in recitals and chamber music. Ari’s solo debut at Carnegie Hall was with harpist Noël Wan, as featured artists in the Yale in New York series. Ari has performed as concerto soloist with the National Academy Orchestra, Canadian Studio Symphony, and Ontario Philharmonic.

Ari was a prizewinner at the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Manulife Competition, and the winner of the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition and Ben Steinberg Musical Legacy Award. They were a semi-finalist in the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition.

A champion of new music and lesser-known solo music for the oboe and English horn, Ari has been fortunate to premiere pieces by Kevin Day, Jocelyn Morlock, Nicky Sohn, Matthew Emery, and Felipe Téllez. Ari has fostered a partnership with the Yarilo Contemporary Music Society in Vancouver, BC as both a featured recitalist and ensemble member for Steve Reich’s Tehillim. Ari has served as guest principal oboe with the Esprit Orchestra.

Feeling equally at home within the orchestra, Ari cherishes performing with ensembles in Canada and abroad. In Ontario, Ari has appeared with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company, the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestras of Toronto, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, Niagara, and Windsor. Their festival appearances include The National Repertory Orchestra (Breckenridge, Colorado), L’Orchestre de la Francophonie, The National Academy Orchestra of Canada, and The National Youth Orchestra of Canada where they received the Award of Excellence. Outside of North America, they have toured to India, China, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Portugal.

Ari teaches oboe at Wilfrid Laurier University as well as the Royal Conservatory of Music and Oscar Peterson School of Music. Ari has previously held positions as an Oboe Instructor at Yale College and as a Teaching Artist at the Yale Music in Schools Initiative. They proudly serve as a Mentor for the National Academy Orchestra of Canada. Ari is a frequent clinician at arts high schools in the Greater Toronto Area.

Ari is a graduate of the prestigious Artist Diploma program at the Yale School of Music. They completed their Master of Music at Mannes School of Music and their Bachelor of Music at the University of British Columbia where they were awarded the UBC Medal in Music. Ari’s teachers and mentors include Sarah Jeffrey, Stephen Taylor, Sherry Sylar, and Beth Orson.

​Ari’s debut album VORTEX released November 14, 2025 on Orchid Classics.

Johanna Cox Pennington joined the faculty at Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music as Professor of Oboe in the Fall of 2023. Her teaching career spans two decades including tenured positions at Louisiana State University and the University of Oklahoma School of Music.

Pennington performed her Carnegie Hall solo debut in October of 2005, of which the New York Concert Review stated, “…a solid recital of high standard, excellent musicianship, and a sense of taste and proportion.” In her hometown of Rochester, NY, she won her first concerto competition at age 17 and performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Her early recordings on the Albany Record label include two full length chamber music CD’s: “Gail Force” with the Prairie Winds Quintet and “American Breeze” with the Musical Arts Quintet funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. She released her first solo CD with Albany Records, “Orion Nocturne, World Premiere Music for Oboe and English Horn,” in 2018. The CD includes five new works she commissioned including Grammy award winning composer, Kenneth Fuchs’s “Orion Nocturne,” and Miguel del Aguila’s “Broken Rondo” concerto for English horn featuring the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto.

Pennington has performed as a guest artist with several notable orchestras including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Chicago Symphony and will perform with the Cleveland Orchestra for upcoming concerts in 2024. She is a frequent soloist at the International Double Reed Society Conference (IDRS) and has given three acclaimed performances at Carnegie Hall. In addition to regular performances with the Baton Rouge Symphony and Louisiana Philharmonic, she won orchestra positions with the Tulsa Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Northwest Indiana Symphony and Breckenridge Music Festival. She has taught oboe clinics, given master classes, and performed concertos and recitals at major universities, both domestic and international, taking her in recent years to Brazil, China, Italy, Germany, England, Spain, France, Romania and Greece.

Her teachers include Richard Killmer at the Eastman School of Music, Alex Klein at Northwestern University and Heinz Holliger at the Freiburg Musikhochschule in Freiberg, Germany.

New England-based oboist Nancy Dimock is the principal oboist of the Boston Ballet Orchestra, the Boston Lyric Opera, the Springfield and Vermont Symphonies, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and is the second oboist and English horn player with the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra. She has been featured as a soloist with the Albany Symphony, the Vermont Symphony, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and the Indian Hill Symphony, and has performed the Bach Concerto for Violin and Oboe on tour with renowned violinist Jaime Laredo. An active chamber musician, she is an artist-member of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble and has collaborated with such artists as the Jacques Thibaud Trio and the Lydian String Quartet, and is a regular performer at the Carolina Chamber Music Festival. During her tenure as principal oboist of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, she performed on the Grammy nominated recording Rosemary Clooney: The Final Concert. Ms. Dimock has also appeared on the Prairie Home Companion radio show, NPR’s Performance Today, and PBS’s Great Performances, and has recorded for Concord, Albany, and Chandos records, and BMOP/Sound. She is on the faculty of Tufts University and the Rivers Conservatory, and teaches a course at Boston Conservatory on Orchestral Excerpts and Audition Preparation.

Elaine Douvas is an institution in the oboe world, having served as principal oboe of the Metropolitan Opera since 1977 and oboe instructor at The Juilliard School since 1982. She has been an artist/faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School since 1997 and also teaches at Mannes College of Music and at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. Among her career highlights, Ms. Douvas has performed the Strauss Oboe Concerto with the MET Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, James Levine conducting, and Dutilleux’s “Les Citations” with the MET Chamber Ensemble. During her long career at the Met, she has participated in hundreds of live broadcasts, DVDs, and studio recordings.

One of the most influential teachers in the USA, Douvas’s pupils hold positions in numerous American orchestras and university faculties, and she was appointed Chairman of the Woodwind Department at Juilliard in 1997. In the summer she teaches intensive, one-week oboe seminars in several locations, the Hidden Valley Music Seminars in Carmel, CA, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and Le Domaine Forget Academie in Quebec. She has given master classes at the Curtis and Cleveland Institutes of Music, Interlochen, the Manhattan and Eastman Schools of Music, the New World Symphony, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Conservatories of Beijing and Shanghai.

Ms. Douvas’s CDs include a solo recital and her quartet project “Pleasure is the Law”, issued by Boston Records, and “Oboe Divas” with oboist Emily Pailthorpe, which is available from the Oboe Classics label. Her three albums of demonstration and written commentary for Music Minus One are used by teachers and students across the country.

Originally from Michigan, Douvas trained at the Cleveland Institute of Music with John Mack and at the Interlochen Arts Academy. Her previous positions include four years as principal oboe of the Atlanta Symphony under Robert Shaw, several summer seasons as guest principal oboe in the New York Philharmonic, the Grand Teton, Marlboro, Angel Fire, and Bravo!Colorado Festivals.

Eugene Feild studied oboe at the Royal Academy of Music with Gordon Hunt and cor anglais with Christine Pendrill. Since then, he has enjoyed a distinguished performing career, playing with many of London’s leading orchestras, including the Philharmonia, where he performed alongside Gordon Hunt for many years. He has also been a top extra with the Ulster Orchestra throughout his career, and has played extensively with numerous other provincial orchestras. Eugene has performed with many opera orchestras, including as a full-time member of English Touring Opera.

Johan Ferreira is an oboist in South Africa, currently serving as the principal oboist of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He regularly appears in the ad-hoc sections of the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra, Free State Symphony, the KZN Philharmonic, and the Eastern Cape Philharmonic.

Recent concerto engagements included the Bach Double Concerto for violin and oboe with violinist Sampson Diamond (with the JPO) and the Strauss Concerto for oboe (with the FSSO). His playing has been described as “surreal” (artSMART.co.za) and “insightful and outstanding” (Volksblad, November 2019). A keen chamber musician, Johan regularly performs with close colleagues Laetitia Orlandi, Liesl van der Merwe, Danre Strydom, and others, at platforms such as the Wakkerstroom Music Festival, Odeion School of Music Concert Series (Bloemfontein), North West University School of Music (Potchefstroom), and the Chamber Music Collective (Johannesburg) in and around South Africa.

After obtaining a PhD from the University of Pretoria in 2017, Johan read towards an MMus degree in oboe performance at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 2018, under the tutelage of Jenny Johnson of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand. Apart from maintaining a full-time oboe career in South Africa, Johan is a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Patrick Flanaghan is Principal Cor Anglais with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He teaches Cor Anglais at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Born in London he began his musical education as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral. Patrick went on to the Purcell School of Music where he studied with Melanie Ragge and won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Celia Nicklin (Oboe) and Geoffrey Brown (Cor Anglais). Whilst at the Royal Academy he won the Leila Bull Oboe Prize. Patrick gained a DAAD scholarship to study with Prof. Emanuel Abbühl at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim. During his time in Germany, Patrick appeared regularly as guest Principal Cor Anglais with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, WDR Funkhaus Orchestra Cologne and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg and as guest Principal Oboe with the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra.

Since returning to the UK, Patrick has been guest Principal Cor Anglais with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Aurora Orchestra. He is also an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Numerous recordings include Solo Oboe on La Folia’s The Vivaldi Files, Cor Anglais in Rob Keeley’s Triple Concerto and Solo Cor Anglais in Copland’s Quiet City with Septura Brass.

Patrick has given Oboe and Cor Anglais classes at RAM, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Trinity Laban, Hochschule für Musik Mainz and the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim.

Daniel Fuster began his oboe studies at the age of 9 with Luis Grau, at the Paiporta School of Music and Interpretation. Later, he continued at the Joaquín Rodrigo Superior Conservatory of Music in Valencia, where he studied with professors Jesús Fuster and Francisco Salanova, obtaining the Extraordinary Prizes at the end of Elementary and Intermediate Grade and the Honorable Mention at the End of Degree Award.

Between 1999 and 2001 he taught at the Professional School of Music in Viana do Castelo (Portugal), and in 2002 he moved to the Musikhochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig, with Professor Christian Wetzel. There, joining the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, he played with conductors such as Ricardo Chailly, Herbert Blomsted, Daniel Harding and Charles Dutoit, and with soloists such as Frank-Peter Zimmerman, Leonidas Kavakos and Kim Kashkasian. He also toured Japan and Korea, as well as recording for Deutsche Grammophon.

In Leipzig he also collaborated as a soloist with the Bach Collegium Musikum and the Felix Mendelssohn Kammerorchester. Later he lived in Salzburg, where he completed a Magister-Studium at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg with Professor Stefan Schilli.

After winning the annual Mozarteum competition, he performed Richard Strauss’s Concerto for Oboe with the orchestra of this institution in the Grosse Saal in Salzburg. During the 2007-2008 season he was principal oboe of the December Symphonierorchester Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich.

He has performed as a soloist on tours of Spain, Portugal, Germany and Austria, and with orchestras such as the HR Radio-Simfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart from SWR, the Symphonica Toscanini, the Cordoba Orchestra, the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville, the one at the Palacio de las Artes with Lorin Maazel or the one at the Teatro Regio in Turin with Gianandrea Noseda. He is currently solo oboe of the Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

As an Orchestral Musician, Ben has performed with Camerata Ireland, Ulster Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. He has performed in many prominent venues such as Carnegie Hall,Het Concertgebeuw Amsterdam, Ulster Hall, National Theatre of São Carlos, Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End, Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ, Prince Mahidol Hall, Bernard Haitinkzaal, and National Concert Hall of Ireland.

Ben completed his Bachelor in Performance with First Class Honours and a Licentiate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 2021 studying with Ruby Ashley. He received his Master in Music Performance at the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam in 2023 having studied with Aisling Casey, Miriam Pastor Burgos and Ernest Rombout.

In April 2024, Ben was awarded the Royal Dublin Societies (RDS) Jago Award. This comes with a solo engagement with RTÉ Concert Orchestra and a bursary prize.

Stefania Giusti, retired Principal Oboe of the Teatro Massimo “Vincenzo Bellini” in Catania, was born in Florence where in 1985 she graduated in Oboe with full marks at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory under the guide of M. Gaetano Patroniti. In the same year she was a finalist in the selections for the European Community Youth Orchestra.

Subsequently she specialized with Gordon Hunt, Luca Vignali and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena with Hans-Jörg Schellenberger. She won several prizes in national and international competitions including the Special Prize at the 11th edition of the “Caltanissetta International Competition” with the “Bellinian Wind Quintet”.

She has recorded for “Rodolphe Production” and made recordings for RAI. As a soloist she has collaborated with various orchestras, including the Camerata Polifonica Siciliana, I Nuovi Cameristi Italians, the Orpheus Ensemble, Stesichoros Chamber Orchestra, giving concerts for important Associations and Festivals such as Amici della Musica of Ferrara and Cortona, Accademia Barocca e Banner of Rome, Noto Musica International Festival, at Villa Rufolo for the Concert Society of Ravello, the Bellinian Festival of Catania etc. She has made several tours in Italy and abroad (Lithuania, Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, Russia, Argentina, Japan, Norway), by collecting public and critical acclaim everywhere. As first oboe she collaborated with the Orchestra del Collegium Musicum of Bamberg in Germany, with the Teatro dell’Opera of Rome and with the Orchestra Laurentian Medicea of Florence

Philip Harmer is an oboe teacher at The Royal Academy of Music. He is Co-Principal oboe of the English Chamber Orchestra and guest principal oboe with many of the country’s leading orchestras. He has made solo appearances with the ECO and Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Philip studied with Michael Winfield at the Royal College of Music. While there, he was awarded an exhibitioner scholarship and won all the main oboe prizes including the Joy Boughton Memorial Award.

On leaving the RCM Philip was made principal oboe with the English Sinfonia, with whom he performed many concertos including those by Strauss, Boughton, Vivaldi, Mozart (Snape Maltings) and also recorded the Holst Fugal Concerto for Naxos.

In 1999 Philip became a member of the English Chamber Orchestra where he happily remains. Tours with them have taken him as far afield as Korea, Bermuda, Japan, South Africa and the USA to name but a few.

Other guest principal oboe work includes performances with the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, CBSO, LPO, RPO, Philharmonia and the BBC orchestras. TV dramas (Wolf Hall, Father Brown) and film (Harry Potter, Atonement) make up another large part of his playing career, plus the occasional unusual numbers on Strictly Come Dancing and Tina Turner’s 60 birthday concert at the BBC.

Teaching is a huge passion for Philip and as well as a position at the RAM Junior Department, he also teaches at Kings Canterbury. Many of his RAM students have been offered places and scholarships to senior conservatoires , and with reed classes taken by himself and Jo Lively, many are given good foundations in the art of reed making .

Philip has given many performance classes at senior conservatoire level and also enjoys examining for final recitals and adjudicating.

In 2018 Philip was made a Hon Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for his services.

Brooke Hitchmough is a versatile Australian oboist now freelancing in Melbourne, with a performance career spanning orchestral, chamber, and stage collaborations. She has performed with leading ensembles including the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Q, Opera Queensland, and the Australian Ballet, appearing in acclaimed productions such as Sleeping Beauty and Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon.

Her principal roles include Principal Oboe for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Educational Roma Tour and Principal Cor Anglais with Queensland Ballet’s Triple Bill. These engagements highlight her musical leadership and adaptability across diverse repertoire.

Now based in Melbourne, she continues to build dynamic collaborations within the city’s vibrant arts scene. As a freelance musician, she brings her artistry to a range of projects while remaining active as an educator, teaching oboe and double reeds in prominent music programs and mentoring emerging talent.

Gordon Hunt was born in London and studied with Terence MacDonagh. He performs throughout the world as soloist and conductor, directs master classes, and plays with renowned chamber ensembles. He has a distinguished orchestral career as Principal Oboe of the Oxford Philharmonic and London Chamber Orchestras, and formerly for many years, of the Philharmonia and London Philharmonic Orchestras. He is also Principal Oboe of the World Orchestra for Peace. He plays an XM oboe by Howarth of London.

Regarded as one of the world’s leading oboists, he has appeared as soloist with conductors such as Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Giulini, Kondrashin, Muti, Sir John Pritchard, Sir Simon Rattle, Sinopoli and Welser-Möst. A critic wrote of a performance of the Mozart Oboe Concerto in Berlin “With his crystal clear, aristocratic tone, he undoubtedly ranks as one of the greatest exponents of his instrument”. Over more than five decades he has performed concertos and chamber music on six continents. In 2005 he played the Adagio from Albinoni’s D minor concerto at the Service of Dedication and Prayer to celebrate the marriage of King Charles and Queen Camilla. In 2008 he was soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, televised live to thirty million homes across the world.

Gordon Hunt has recorded a wide range of music for BMG, EMI and Virgin, including all of Mozart’s solo and chamber music. His recording of the Richard Strauss Concerto with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy (Decca) was named the finest version by the Penguin CD Guide. He has made many recordings for BIS, including “elevazione”, a very successful disc of popular concertos, which he also directed. He appears on twenty-six solo and chamber music CDs and is the original “Gabriel’s Oboe” in Ennio Morricone’s music for the 1986 film “The Mission”.

As a conductor, Gordon Hunt is widely known. He was Music Director of the Danish Chamber Players and the Swedish Chamber Winds. He has conducted orchestras in South Africa, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Danish Radio Sinfonietta, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonia and Southbank Sinfonia in London. He has also worked in Georgia, and in the Budapest Spring Festival. He has recently conducted in Brazil, Madeira, Thailand and Finland.

He has for some time been a member of the faculty for two prestigious festivals – TMAF in Taiwan, and FEMUSC in Brazil.

Gordon Hunt is Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and is much in demand from students and professionals worldwide. He is a member of the jury for the International Oboe Competition of Japan. In 2010 he was designated a UNESCO Artist for Peace, and in 2024 was appointed an Honorary Member of the International Double Reed Society.

Outside of music, he is passionate about nature and the environment, and fly fishing for trout and salmon.

Inoko Isobe is an oboist in the Jyväskylä Sinfonia. Born into a musical family in Takasaki City in Japan, Inoko completed her undergraduate studies in Cultural Sciences at Waseda University. Before moving to Europe, Inoko studied oboe with Mikao Hagimori and Mika Komiyama, and was the recipient of Young Artist Awards in both Gumma and Takasaki City. Inoko won the first prize at Crowther’s Oboe Competition at the GSMD in 2018.

Recent professional engagements include periods as Principal Oboe with Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the National Philharmonic of the Republic of Moldova and with Brasov Philharmonic Orchestra.

J. Scott Janusch was Principal Oboe of the Hawai’i (Honolulu) Symphony from 1987 to 2023.. He was a scholarship student at the Manhattan School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music where he earned his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. His teachers include John Mack, Elaine Douvas, Henry Schuman and Marc Lifschey. Scott has also been the oboist in the Spring Wind Quintet since 1996 and also is the Education/Outreach Coordinator for Chamber Music Hawaii’s in-school and Community concerts and workshops.

Scott has also performed as Principal Oboe with the San Antonio Symphony and the Santa Barbara Symphony, where he was a featured soloist in April 2004. He was also appointed as Principal Oboe of the San Diego Symphony and Opera Orchestra for the 2001/2002 season and appointed to the same position in the Kansas City Symphony by Maestro Michael Stern for their 2010/2011 season. Scott has also been featured as a soloist with the Honolulu Symphony on six occasions performing the Mozart Oboe Concerto in 1990 and 2002, the Vivaldi d minor Concerto in 1999, the Bach Double Violin/Oboe Concerto and Mozart’s ‘Sinfonia Concertante’ in 2007, and the Strauss Oboe Concerto with Andreas Delfs conducting in 2008. Scott has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and participated in the Maui Chamber Music Festival, the Colorado Music Festival, the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Also a keyboard artist, Scott has performed on the piano, harpsichord, and celesta for the Honolulu Symphony, Ballet Hawaii, Chamber Music Hawaii, and for several faculty recitals at the University of Hawaii.

Celeste Johnson is currently Professor of Oboe at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory and remains active as a performer, pedagogue, clinician and presenter. Equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player and teacher, Professor Johnson balances an active performing career with a passion for teaching the next generation of oboists and musicians.

Professor Johnson maintains an active performance calendar within the region, country and abroad. Each July, she performs with Summerfest, a chamber music series based in Kansas City for which she is also an artistic advisor. Celeste continues to perform as a substitute with the Kansas City Symphony and regularly performs recitals alongside clinics and masterclasses across the United States. Professor Johnson has also performed twice as a featured concerto soloist with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, of which she was a member for eleven seasons prior to moving to Kansas City.  As a performer, Celeste has presented concerts in Japan, Colombia, Switzerland, the Isle of Man (British Isles), Canada and across the United States.

As a recording artist, Professor Johnson has released several recordings. KaleidosCoping, featuring 21st century compositions for flute, oboe and piano, was released in 2019.  Her second album, Wider Than the Sky, features compositions by women composers was released in 2022.  She can be heard playing English horn on the recording Jurrian Andriessen; Music for Oboe and Winds, which was released in 2023.

Professor Johnson has performed in orchestras, festivals and as a soloist at national and international venues. She performed as Principal Oboe with the New York String Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, as well as with the Russian String Orchestra, Sarasota Opera Orchestra, Tulsa Opera Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Binghamton Philharmonic and Quad Cities Symphony.

Celeste Johnson has worked with oboists across the globe as the recipient of fellowships to numerous music festivals and programs. She has received fellowships to attend the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, and Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland. She has also performed at the Sarasota Music Festival, Kent/Blossom Music Festival, Pine Mountain Music Festival, and at the Banff Centre masterclasses in Alberta, Canada. A two-time finalist and prize-winner in the Gillet/Fox International Oboe Competition, Celeste was also a prize-winner in the Barbirolli International Oboe competition and won the University of Illinois Concerto Competition.

As a teacher, Professor Johnson has taught for various camps and festivals across the United States. She served as a faculty member at the Bay View Music Festival for three years and the Filarmonica Joven de Colombia in South America for two of their tours across South America. She has taught numerous masterclasses at high schools and universities across the country, in addition to hosting and teaching at a variety of camps for high school and collegiate oboists. Prior to moving to Kansas City, she taught at Oklahoma State University for twelve years.

Professor Johnson maintains active memberships in professional organizations and has presented and performed at many conferences including the International and Midwest Double Reed Societies.  She served for four years as chair of the Norma Hooks Young Artist Competition, hosted by the International Double Reed Society bi-annually. She has presented double reed clinics at the Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma Music Educators Association conferences, presenting on the topic of double reed fundamentals and pedagogy for K-12 teachers, directors and performers.

Ms. Johnson holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her primary teachers include Richard Killmer, Nancy Ambrose King, Dan Stolper and Phil Koch.

After graduating Kunitachi College of Music in 1995, he completed his studies at Conservatoire de Musique of Geneve. Here, he received 1st. prize and Henri Brolier special award.

Principal oboist of Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra since 1999, principal of Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra from 2006.

Special prize at Tokyo International Oboe Competition in 2000, Valois de Paris special at Toulon International Competition, and 1st prize at the Japan wind and percussion competition in 2002.

Studied under Takehiko Nitori, Seizou Maruyama, Maurice Bourgue, Roland Pernoud.

Oboist of Trio l’esperance and Duo Reverence.

Edward Kay studied at the Royal Northern College of Music under Peter Graeme, and David Theodore in London graduating with a Distinction in Performance Diploma. He entered the Concours International Competitions for oboe in Paris achieving 3rd prize and later Geneva as finalist and was appointed Principal Oboist of the English Northern Philharmonic (Opera North) in 1982. In 1988 he became Principal Oboe of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and has often featured as soloist.

Edward occasionally appears as guest Principal Oboe with other British Orchestras most notably since 2010 with London Symphony Orchestra and with the RPO on tour to Azerbaijan and Shanghai. Teaching oboe and wind ensemble coaching has been a constant throughout his career, and taking part in Masterclasses is a regular activity with recent visits to Exeter, Trinity Laban London, and as a Howarth of London Oboe Artist to give a Masterclass and recital at The Royal Irish Academy of Music in Hublin.

Igor Leschishin has been Principal Oboist of The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra since 1998.

From 1996 until 1998 Mr. Leschishin played in The New World Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas in Miami Beach, Florida. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1995 performing the Vivaldi Oboe Concerto with the New York String Orchestra.

Igor graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with a master’s degree in orchestral performance as a scholarship student of Joseph Robinson, Principal Oboist of The New York Philharmonic.

He participated in the Tanglewood Music Festival, Grant Park Music Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, and Spoleto Festival (USA and Italy). Igor Leschishin, born in Ukraine, won numerous first prize awards including the Belorussian Woodwind Competition and the International Woodwind Competition.

Originally from Naperville, Illinois, oboist Nora Anderson Lewis enjoys a varied performance career and has played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series, with Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Boston Lyric Opera. She was a founding member of Chicago-based Ensemble Dal Niente and has performed in recital at St. Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, London, and in live broadcasts on WFMT Chicago.

In 2025, Oxford University Press published Nora’s Notes for Oboists: A Guide to the Repertoire, part of the Notes for Performers series, with support from the LURF program and outstanding undergraduate students. With clarinetist Phillip O. Paglialonga and bassoonist Eric Van der Veer Varner, Nora was a founding member of the PEN Trio, a chamber ensemble that from 2010-2019 commissioned and premiered numerous new works and toured internationally. Summit Records released PEN Trio’s album, Found Objects New Music for Reed Trio in 2019.

Nora has presented clinics, performances, and papers at national and international conferences and is a frequent guest artist at the Chicago Double Reed Festival and a regular performer and presenter at International Double Reed Society conferences. Honors include a Big-12 Faculty Fellowship, honorary membership in Sigma Alpha Iota as a National Arts Associate, and a Yale AlumniVentures Grant. She has served on the CMS National Advisory Board for performance, as editor for the Midwest Double Reed Society, and is consulting editor for The Instrumentalist magazine.

Prior to her appointment at Lawrence, she held faculty and administrative positions at Western Michigan University and Kansas State University, and an administrative role at New England Conservatory. Nora is a graduate of Lawrence’s dual-degree program in oboe performance and philosophy and received a Master of Music degree from Yale University’s School of Music and a Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.

At Lawrence, Nora has built an oboe studio of 8-10 students and worked with them in weekly lessons, studio classes, chamber music, and reed-making workshops. She has taught courses including Aesthetics of Music, Music in Fin-de-Siècle Paris and Vienna, music theory, and developed the course Sublime Frequencies: Punk Ethnography in Our Digital Age. She lives in Appleton, Wisconsin with her husband Keith, their two standard poodles, Cleo and Ziggy, and Siberian Forest Cat, Alexey. A few years ago, she walked 500 miles along the Camino de Santiago.

Richard Lines-Davies is a professional freelance oboist from Surrey, England. He graduated from the Royal College of Music with a First Class Honours degree in 2018 and continued his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying for an Orchestral Artistry Masters degree and receiving a Distinction. He stayed for an extra year at the Guildhall as a Junior Fellow.

Richard has had a successful beginning to his freelancing career, performing as principal with the St Martin in the Fields Orchestra, Barbican Sinfonia, Thames Sinfonia, the Easter and Summer Endellion Festival Orchestras, and playing in the section of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin, London Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. Most recently, he was second oboe and cover conductor for the UK Tour of Batman (1989) In Concert.

As well as performing orchestrally, he regularly performs in musical theatre productions across London on oboe, saxophone, clarinet, and flute. Most recent shows include depping on Kimberly Akimbo, Jane Eyre, The Great Gatsby and Sondheim: Old Friends. He also toured China in February 2025 for a musical theatre review show.

Outside of performing, Richard is a dedicated teacher, and alongside his educational work, he is also passionate about the outreach work he does, specifically with the Brixton Chamber Orchestra, bringing classical music to different communities who may never have experienced live music before, with an aim to inspire the next generation of young musicians.”

Born in 1949, Malcolm began playing the oboe in 1964 at Bryanston School.

He ran a series of chamber music concerts every Wednesday evening without exception at school, and took part in many concerts around Dorset.

In 1967, he won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire of Music, where he studied with Pierre Pierlôt. When Pierlôt left the Conservatoire, Messiter returned to the Royal College of Music in London to continue his studies with Sydney Sutcliffe. There he won the Joy Boughton prize, the Grade 5 prize, the R.A.O.S. medal and a Performers’ A.R.C.M. with Honours.

Malcolm was appointed principal oboe in the BBC Concert Orchestra at the age of only 22. After 5 years, he left to become principal oboe in the London Mozart Players. He was a joint-winner of the 1978 Leeds International Musicians’ Platform. As the number of solo engagements escalated, Malcolm had to reduce his orchestral playing. As soloist, Malcolm has recorded for BMG, RCA, Deutsche Grammophon, ASV, Hyperion, Arte Nova Classics and the BBC as well as a great many British and foreign radio and TV stations. He is the oboe in Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells”, and for many years played with the Amadeus Quartet all over Europe. He was the oboe soloist on the theme to BBC TV’s “The Secret Garden”, as well as a regular performer on radio and television world-wide.

Malcolm has played as a soloist in more than 55 countries, and is also a busy arranger of music for chamber groups, and for orchestras including the BBC Concert Orchestra, The English Chamber Orchestra, the Radio Orchestra of Cologne and the London Festival Orchestra.

Malcolm currently plays principal oboe with the London Festival Orchestra, The English Classical Players, the Thames Chamber Orchestra, among others.

Katherine Needleman joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as principal oboist in 2003, the same year she won first prize at the International Double Reed Society’s Gillet-Fox Competition. As soloist, she has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, the Richmond Symphony, the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra, the Haddonfield Symphony, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, in addition to her frequent appearances with the Baltimore Symphony. She has performed as guest principal oboist with the New York Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New Zealand, and San Diego.

Devoted to the music of our time, Ms. Needleman has premiered numerous works and has commissioned works by Luis Prado, Chia-Yu Hsu and David Ludwig, including his Pleaides which she recorded on the GENUIN label with pianist Jennifer Lim in their album, Duos for Oboe and Piano. She gave the American premiere of Ruth Gipps’ Oboe Concerto with the Richmond Symphony and Valentina Peleggi, conducted and played the American premiere of Brenno Blauth’s Concertino with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and gave the West Coast premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Oboe Concerto at the Cabrillo Festival with Marin Alsop conducting. She gave the premiere of Kevin Puts’ oboe concerto, Moonlight, at the Baltimore Symphony’s New Music Festival with Marin Alsop.

Ms. Needleman’s chamber music engagements have taken her to Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York; Jordan Hall and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, as well as the Freer Gallery in Washington D.C. She has appeared at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Italy’s Spoleto Festival, the Alpenglow Festival, the Newport Music Festival, and throughout Greenland with Trio La Milpa as part of the first American chamber music ensemble to appear there. A participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, she has also appeared on two tours with “Musicians from Marlboro.”

In the 2019-2020 season before it was truncated by COVID-19, Ms. Needleman presented a recital for oboe and piano with pianist Hanchien Lee of music by women composers in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Tampa, New York City, Washington D.C., Oberlin, and Pittsburgh. She concurrently presented a recital of music for oboe alone in Baltimore, Northfield MN, Washington DC, Minneapolis, Iowa City, Madison WI, Eau Claire WI, and Greensboro VT. A third recital project that involved suppressed music of “degenerate” composers started and ended in March, 2020. In late March, 2020, she began her Lockdown Oboe Solo Concerts during COVID-19 quarantine which covered Telemann’s Twelve Fantasias and a broad survey of repertoire for oboe solo from the past 100 years. She broadcast eleven weekly performances including numerous premieres to an audience of 75,000 and growing from her living room, except for one performance which began on a raft in floating on a cold lake near the Canadian border and ended with her swimming into shore. Ms. Needleman co-founded and curates Coffee, Patisserie, and Classical Music, a morning classical music series at An Die Musik, one of Baltimore’s most intimate venues.

A lifelong improviser, she has recorded the Marmalade Balloon, an album of improvised, ambient chamber music with distinguished classical music colleagues as well as synthesizers from the 1960s and 1970s. She started writing music down on paper during the COVID-19 pandemic and won the International Double Reed Society’s Inaugural Commissioning Competition with her sonata for oboe and piano. They commissioned her to write a work for English horn and piano which received its premiere in July, 2021, with Alison Teale of the BBC Symphony.

A Baltimore native, Ms. Needleman attended high school at the Baltimore School for the Arts but left early to attend the Curtis Institute of Music. She served on the faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University for fifteen years and is currently on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Celia Nicklin recently retired as Professor of Oboe at The Royal Academy of Music. If you’ve ever watched the film Amadeus, you will have heard Celia playing the oboe with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

During the years before joining the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Celia was principal oboe with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and a student at the Royal Academy of Music.

On her return from a year in Germany, she was offered the principal oboe position with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. After a couple of years with that orchestra she moved to London, where she was, for more than 35 years, the principal oboe with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the London Mozart Players, as well as playing with most of the prominent British symphony orchestras.

She also played in backing bands with the Beatles and many of the most successful UK pop groups.

Celia has played for hundreds of recordings, both as soloist & orchestral member, in particular with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the London Mozart Players, and has worked with most of the world’s great soloists.

She recently retired from her prominent role in the oboe department at the Royal Academy of Music, as well as teaching and examining across Europe and the USA. She is also often a judge on the panels of international music competitions. She is a dedicated teacher and has taught many students who have gone on to become distinguished oboists, either as principals in orchestras throughout the world, or as teachers.

Chris O’Neal has been established as a leading freelance Principal Oboe for over 25 years. He currently holds Principal Oboe positions in the Orchestra of St Johns, the London Mozart Players and the New Queens Hall Orchestra. Previous positions have included the Mercury Ensemble of Ballet Rambert, Kent Opera under Roger Norrington and Ivan Fischer, and the English Sinfonia with whom he recorded Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Sir Charles Groves. He now appears as guest Principal Oboe in symphony and chamber orchestras all over the country and with many other smaller ensembles such as Endymion, the Composers Ensemble and the Albion Ensemble.

Tom Owen was born in England and received his musical education at the Purcell School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Hanover Musikhochschule with Klaus Becker. At the age of 19 he won the Royal Academy of Music Oboe Prize, which was followed by many others. He regularly appears as solo oboist with leading orchestras such as the Bavarian State Orchestra in Munich, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and the Staatskapelle Dresden.

He is in great demand as a chamber musician as well as a soloist. For instance, he performed Bach’s Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin with Nigel Kennedy at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, gave multiple performances of Fischer’s Oboe Concerto with the Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic under Reinhard Goebel, as well as Strauss’ Oboe Concerto and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante at the Cologne Philharmonic with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne under principal conductor Markus Stenz. In addition, he has given recitals at the Beijing International Oboe Festival 2014 and the International Double Reed Convention 2015 in Tokyo.

Tom Owen regularly gives masterclasses at the Orchesterzentrum NRW, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, the Festival “Duchi d’Acquaviva” in Atri (Italy) and the Central Conservatory Beijing (China). He is a regular guest with the Linos Ensemble, founder of the Kölner Kammersolisten, who got their first recording contract with MDG in 2014, and a founding member as well as 2nd chairman of the association “Kammermusik für Köln”. In 2015 he was appointed Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM). Tom Owen has been principal oboist of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne since 2006.

With her unique vocal sound and compelling musicianship, oboist Emily Pailthorpe has won a large following amongst fellow musicians and concertgoers worldwide.

Her versatile career has shown her equally at home as a soloist, orchestral principal, chamber musician, session artist and sought-after teacher.

Emily’s career was launched at the age of 17 when she became the youngest artist ever to win the Fernand Gillet International Oboe Competition. Playing the Vaughan Williams concerto, she was hailed by the judges as “the Jacqueline du Pré of the oboe”. Emily went on to make her acclaimed concerto debut in 2003, playing the Strauss Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra, and gave her Wigmore Hall recital debut in the same year.

Emily attended the Purcell School of Music and the Interlochen Arts Academy. She became a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and performed for the president at the White House and the Kennedy Center. She is a graduate of Yale University where she read English and graduated with distinction, and the Juilliard School of Music, where as a student of Elaine Douvas she won the concerto competition and the prize for most valued orchestral musician. Her playing has inspired many composers to write for her, including Paul Patterson, who wrote his Phoenix Concerto for her, and Richard Blackford, who wrote The Better Angels of Our Nature for her. Emily gave both the world premiere (UK, 2009) and US premiere performances of Patterson’s Phoenix and performed the world premiere of Richard Blackford’s The Better Angels of Our Nature in Los Angeles in 2013. She gave the UK premiere of Better Angels with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Martyn Brabbins in 2015.

In addition to her performances as soloist and chamber musician, Emily has appeared as guest principal oboe with many orchestras, notably the Philharmonia, the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Scottish, Welsh National Opera, Baltimore Symphony, Dallas Opera, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Spoleto Festival Orchestra and English National Opera. A sought-after session artist, Emily features on the soundtracks of many films including Jane Eyre, Harry Potter and The Theory of Everything. She can be heard regularly on American National Public Radio, Classic FM and BBC Radio 3 and she has featured as a guest on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’.

Emily is a founder member and the oboist of the London Conchord Ensemble, which celebrated its tenth anniversary with a performance at the BBC Proms Chamber Music Series. The ensemble performs in Europe and America with recent engagements at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Brussels Palais des Beaux Arts, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, BBC Wigmore Lunchtime Series and Washington’s Library of Congress. 2016 marked the second year of Conchord’s chamber music festival, the Conchord Festival, which takes place in Twickenham, ‘London’s Arcadia’, in June and of which Emily is Artistic Director. Drawing upon her deep interest in the relationship between literature and music she has brought guests including Simon Callow, Dame Felicity Lott, Michael Berkeley and Roderick Williams to collaborate with the ensemble. In 2015 she arranged a joint commission with the Charleston Literary Festival –The Rhythm of Silence, written by Alexandra Spencer-Jones – in which actors from Action to the Word Theatre Company and Conchord, alongside the acclaimed Juliet Stevenson, performed a synthesis of Benjamin Britten’s Phantasty Quartet and Virginia Woolf’s The Waves.

As part of the BBC celebrations to mark International Women’s Day 2016, Emily was invited to perform Thea Musgrave’s Helios Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the concert was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Her recordings – amongst them English oboe concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra and chamber music of Poulenc, Loeffler, Thuille, Balakirev, Ravel, Dutilleux and Bach – have received many accolades. Her recording of the Bach Oboe d’Amore Concerto became Classic FM’s CD of the month.

Emily is a dedicated teacher; she has coached the Britten-Pears orchestra and given many masterclasses in the UK, France and America, including at the Juilliard School in New York. In 2016 she joined the faculty at the Aspen Music Festival for teaching and performances.

Emily lives in London with her husband, flautist Daniel Pailthorpe, and their 3 young children.

While studying the oboe at the RCM, Christine discovered an affinity with the cor anglais which informed her lifelong career. With the encouragement of her professor, Michael Winfield, she began to freelance with the London orchestras while still a student.

In 1980, she was invited to become the Principal Cor Anglais player of the Philharmonia Orchestra, a position she held for five years until she moved to the London Symphony Orchestra in the same capacity. At that time, she was one of only a handful of women in the LSO, (a situation now happily rectified), and in 1986 became the first woman to be elected by the players to the Board of Directors, fulfilling a three year term.

During Christine’s many years as a member of the LSO, she played for some of the world’s greatest conductors and recorded most of the major orchestral solos. In 1996, she gave the first performance of ‘The World’s Ransoming’ a concertante work written for her and the LSO by James MacMillan. After many further performances, she recorded the work with Sir Colin Davis and the LSO for LSO Live.

Christine has taught at the RCM for some years. After retiring from the LSO in June 2022, she now devotes her time to introducing oboe students to the joys of playing the cor anglais.

Dora Proud has recently moved back to Serbia, where she is taking up the position of Principal Oboe of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. Before this move, Dora was the lecturer of oboe at the University of Idaho where she performs with the Northwest Wind Quintet and LHSOM Double Reed Duo and teaches undergraduate and graduate studio oboe and courses in aural skills and music appreciation. Her research focuses on commissioning and performing chamber music from underrepresented composers.

Dora is a Howarth Artist and performs on their LXV oboe and XL English horn.

With her husband and saxophonist Joseph Proud, she formed the Proud Duo in 2016, with the goal of expanding the repertoire for their unique instrumentation by combining their different cultural backgrounds. Since then, they have given featured performances at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Granada, Spain (Included the World Premiere of Devojacko kolo by Stanislava Gajic), the College Music Society Northeast Regional Conference at Temple University in Philadelphia, the International Woodwind Symposium at Sam Houston State University, Texas in 2018 (where they were the first prize winners of the Young Artists Competition), the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial National Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio (Included the World Premiere of Dva Gledista by Brian Kershner), the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors in Montevallo, Alabama (Included the World Premiere of Dawn to Dusk by Filipe Leitao), North American Saxophone Alliance Region 6 Conference in Valdosta, Georgia and many other festivals.

Dora has performed throughout the USA, Europe, Israel and Turkey as a member of chamber ensembles, orchestras and as a soloist. Before moving to the USA, she was a member of the Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with Connecticut Lyric Opera, Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Columbus Ballet, Sarajevo Philharmonic, Banja Luka Philharmonic, Maribor International Orchestra, Camerata Academica Novi Sad, Orfelin Symphony Orchestra, Kotor Art Festival Orchestra and many others.

In 2019 she presented a lecture and performance at the International Double Reed Society Conference on Benjamin Lees’ Oboe Concerto at the University of South Florida in Tampa. On the Second Annual IDRS Virtual Symposium she presented a recital of female composers for oboe and bassoon with Javier Rodriguez, D.M., premiering works by Nansi Carroll and Jenni Brandon. In 2007 and 2010, she won the Music Academy’s Annual Concerto Competition at the University of Novi Sad and was selected to play Concerto for Two Oboes by Antonio Vivaldi and Bellini’s Oboe Concerto with the Academy Orchestra. She also performed the Cimarosa Oboe Concerto with the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra Orpheus and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds with the Stanislav Binicki Symphony Orchestra. She has participated in numerous competitions and won various awards for solo playing at Serbian national oboe competitions. During her studies she played in masterclasses for renowned oboists Alex Klein (Chicago Symphony), Caroline Hove (Los Angeles Philharmonic) and Sherry Sylar (New York Philharmonic).

Dora completed her Doctor of Musical Arts in oboe performance at the University of Alabama, where she was a graduate teaching assistant for the oboe studio. She also earned a Master of Music in oboe performance from the University of Belgrade and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Additional studies include the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, Slovenia, which she attended as a scholarship recipient, and Columbus State University, where she earned an artist diploma.

Ryan Roberts was appointed Principal Oboe of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2025 by Gustavo Dudamel. He previously served as the Solo English hornist of the New York Philharmonic for six seasons where he was recognized as a “pillar of the ensemble”, and praised for his “flawless poetry” and “eloquent”, “exquisite”, “alluring solo playing” by the New York Times. Ryan also served as Principal Oboe of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center (formerly “Mostly Mozart”), and has performed as guest Principal Oboe and English horn with many of the country’s leading orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra.

While in New York, Ryan was a member of the oboe faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, Bard College Conservatory of Music and Mannes School of Music, where he also conducted the Mannes Wind Orchestra. Ryan has worked with students in the US and abroad in masterclasses and seminars at The Juilliard School, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, The Glenn Gould School, the New World Symphony, Lynn University, and many others.

An award-winning soloist, Ryan recently performed Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto with Jonathon Heyward and the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center at David Geffen Hall. Other recent performances have included concerti by Strauss, Bach, and Francaix. In 2018, Ryan premiered Michael Torke’s Oboe Concertino with the Albany Symphony and recorded the work for Albany Records. As a student, Ryan received first prize at the International Double Reed Society’s Young Artist Competition and the National Society of Arts and Letters’ Woodwind Competition.

Ryan is a frequent guest artist at the Marlboro Music Festival and has toured with “Musicians from Marlboro”. He also performs regularly at the Rockport Music Festival and with the Gamut Bach Ensemble at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. His past recital engagements have included performances with the Pacifica Quartet and Emanuel Ax.

Before his time in the New York Philharmonic, Ryan spent one season as a member of the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson-Thomas. As a Kovner Fellow graduate of The Juilliard School, Ryan studied with Elaine Douvas and performed frequently with the Juilliard Orchestra.

Ryan is also an accomplished pianist, and made his concerto debut at age 11. When he isn’t busy making reeds, Ryan can be found practicing piano or surfing in Malibu and Ventura.

Sarah Roper, Solo Oboe of the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Spain, since 1996, was born in New Zealand but grew up and was educated in England. She studied the oboe at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with George Caird and Celia Nicklin, whilst reading music at London University simultaneously. At the RAM she was awarded the Robert Rendell prize. The “DAAD” (German government) scholarship enabled her to study at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Karlsruhe, Germany, with Thomas Indermühle, attaining distinction for the postgraduate “Künstlerische Ausbildung 1” diploma.

Sarah held the Associate Oboe position in the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Spain, 1995-1996 and was Associate Oboe in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, New Zealand, 2008-2009. She has performed and recorded as Solo Oboe with Klangforum, Vienna, orchestras and ensembles in Spain (Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Moonwinds, Orquestra de Cadaqués), Germany (SWR Orchester) and in the UK (BBC Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Halle Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra).

She is a founding member of Cuarteto Emispherio with whom she released the CD “Quartets for Oboe and Strings” in 2015 (including the world premiere recording of “Horus” by Ferrer Ferran) and the world premiere digital track “Cuarteto con Oboe” by Jesús Torres in 2019 with Oboe Classics. In 2022 Cuarteto Emispherio launched a new project “Interconexiones” which involves the commissioning and recording of five brand new quartets for oboe and strings (https://cuartetoemispherio.com/eng/). Sarah also recorded and released “Fantasy for Oboe” by Malcolm Arnold in 2017 and “Silentium Amoris” for oboe and piano by Jesús Torres with Ignacio Torner in 2020 with Oboe Classics.

As a recitalist and soloist, she has performed in the UK, Austria, Germany, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic, Japan, USA, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. In 2013 Sarah gave solo recitals during the first Monteverdi Oboe Festival in Bolzano, Italy. She performed in the ABPD (Brazilian Double Reed Society) International Conferences in João Pessoa (2017) and in Sao Paulo (2018), Brazil. She world premiered “Soledad Habitada” for oboe and piano by Jesús Sancho (IDRS 2012 Ohio) and “Silentium Amoris” for oboe and piano by Jesús Torres (IDRS 2019, Tampa, Florida). In January 2020 Sarah performed the Spanish premiere of “Neon Highway” (concerto for oboe and 12 instruments) by Luke Styles and “Silentium Amoris” for oboe and piano by Jesús Torres with Taller Sonoro, during the “IX Encuentros Sonoros” Festival in Seville. In 2022 she collaborated with the publisher, Curiad, for the first printed edition of the concerto for oboe and orchestra, Carillons for Oboe and Orchestra (1965, revised 1973) by welsh composer Grace M. Williams (1906- 1977), a work which Sarah performed in the USA in July 2022.

She collaborates with local youth orchestras such as the Youth Orchestra of South Spain (OJA) and the Orquesta Escuela Filarmonía de Sevilla. She has collaborated as professor of the Master’s degree in Orchestral Studies at the Academia de Estudios Orquestales at the Barenboim-Said Foundation and Fundación MpMusic in Seville and forms part of the oboe department at the Escuela Superior de Música de Alto Rendimiento (ESMAR). Sarah has been invited to give masterclasses during international summer courses and at music schools such as the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik and Darstellende Kunst, Stuttgart, the Royal Academy of Music, London, Auckland University, NZ, the Australian Double Reed Society in Adelaide, the ABPD (Brazilian Double Reed Society) International Conferences in João Pessoa (2017) and in Sao Paulo (2018), Brazil, and the “Oficina de Musica”, Curitiba in Brazil (35º, 2018 and 38º, 2021). In 2020, during the lockdown, she collaborated with the project “Oboé sem Fronteiras” (UFBP, Brazil) and the Arkansas State Virtual Summer Double Reed Camp (USA). She serves on jury panels for national and international competitions, such as the 2014 “Young Artist Competition” in New York, the 2017 “Gillet-Fox Competition” in Appleton, USA and the “2022 Online International BTHVN WIEN Competition”.

Sarah, an advocate for the double reed world, is a founding member of the ADCS (Seville Double Reed Society) and was President of AFOES (Spanish Double Reed Society) November 2018 – September 2022. Since January 2022 she serves as President of the International Double Reed Society.

Sarah is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and plays a Howarth LXV oboe.

Martin Schuring held orchestral positions with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, The Florida Orchestra, and the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra before joining the faculty of Arizona State University in 1992 where he is currently Evelyn Smith Professor of Music. Since 1980, Schuring has been a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, playing English horn and oboe in the Festival Orchestra as well as making frequent appearances on the Festival’s chamber music series. He also performed as guest principal oboe and English horn with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for several seasons.

Schuring has recorded for Philips, Koch International, MMC, and Summit Records, both as soloist and as an orchestral player, including the world premiere recording of Oboe Concerto , Op. 57 by Eric Funk with the Prague Radio Symphony on the MMC label. His most recent release is Rustiques, a recital of reed trio music with the Ocotillo Winds available on Summit Records.

Schuring is the author of “Oboe Art and Method”(Oxford University Press, 2009), the first comprehensive book of oboe technique published in nearly 50 years. As editor, Schuring has prepared new editions of the Barret Oboe Method and the Ferling 48 Studies, Op. 31for Kalmus. He has performed at every Conference of the International Double Reed Society since 1997, including featured concerto performances at the 2000 and 2001 conferences. As a member of the reed trio Ocotillo Winds, and as soloist, Schuring regularly performs and gives master classes at universities and concert venues throughout the country. Schuring has served on the executive board of the International Double Reed Society (IDRS) since 2002, currently holding the office of past-president. He co-hosted the 1998 and 2011 IDRS Conferences at Arizona State University. Mr. Schuring studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with John de Lancie.

 

Maxwell Spiers studied oboe and piano at the Royal College of Music with John Anderson, Christopher Cowie and Ruth Gerald, continuing his cor anglais studies with Christine Pendrill, Michael Winfield and Sue Bohling. After a year with the National Orchestra of Malta, he returned to the UK and in 2001 was appointed Principal Cor Anglais of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, a position he held for 24 years.

 

As a freelance orchestral musician, Max has appeared as guest Principal Cor Anglais with all of the London symphony orchestras. His work currently includes regular engagements with the London Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has performed on numerous film and commercial recordings, as well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.  He has also worked with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and is a regular guest with English National Ballet Philharmonic, English National Opera and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

 

Alongside his performing career, Max has given international masterclasses in Malta and Singapore. He is Senior Wind Tutor for the South London Youth Orchestra and is a member of the professorial staff at both the Royal College of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Sherry Sylar has held the position of Associate Principal Oboe in the New York Philharmonic since 1984.  Throughout her tenure she has acted many times as the Principal Oboist. Besides being regularly featured as a solo artist with the New York Philharmonic, she has played guest principal with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

A highlight of her career, she was one of eight NY Philharmonic musicians chosen to perform in an international orchestra led by Leonard Bernstein, representing the United States during the 1989 Christmas season at the Berlin Celebration Concerts celebrating the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. She has performed during the tenure of five NY Philharmonic Music Directors. Now, as she looks forward to Gustavo Dudamel, an iconic figure in classical music today, taking the helm at the Philharmonic, she remains excited and proud to be a member of one of the great orchestras in the world.

Franco Tangari made his debut in the musical world in 1970 in the supporting role of Amahal as a Menotti’s opera “Amahal and the night visitors” at the Rome Opera. In 1971 at the Scala in Milan he was Yniold in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande under the direction of G.Prêtre. He completed his musical studies at the Civic Music School in Milan and brilliantly graduated in oboe at the B. Marcello Conservatory in Venice under the guidance of A.Caroldi.

In 1981 he won the Stresa international competition. He collaborates with important chamber groups including “Carme”, “FiatiItaliani”, “Divertimento Ensemble”, participating in numerous recordings and from 1980 became Principal Oboe of the “Camerata Strumentale” in Milan, playing throughout Italy a large part of the Baroque oboe repertoire.

In 1982 he became a permanent member of the Rai Symphony Orchestra of Milan and since 1995 he has been the cor anglaise for the RAI National Symphony Orchestra based in Turin. He has toured Japan, South America, Germany, Austria, France, Spain and conductors such as Inbal, Chailly, Pretre, De Burgos have appreciated his particularly expressive sound. In 2003 he founded the “Baroque Ensemble” of OSN Rai with which he recorded music by Bach and Zelenka, played in the Cappella Paolina in Rome for the Quirinale Concerts and in the Piemonte in Musica circuit.

Michael Wilson was appointed Principal Oboe of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 2009. Prior to this he was Co-Principal Oboe from 2005. Before moving to Hong Kong, he was working regularly with London-based orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra with which he toured extensively in Germany under the direction of then Chief Conductor, Kurt Masur. He also worked with other UK orchestras, which gave rise to the opportunity to play Vivaldi’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin, with Nigel Kennedy.

Michael studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where he graduated with First Class Honours and received the Philip Jones prize for woodwind. He was then awarded a place in the newly founded orchestra, the Southbank Sinfonia, based in London.

Michael’s introduction to music started at eight years old when he began singing as a chorister in a cathedral choir. Requiring rehearsals and services every day until the age of 14, he developed a keen musical understanding and acquired a broad knowledge of choral repertoire.

Since moving to Hong Kong he has been invited to play Guest Principal Oboe with orchestras such as the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.