Lauren Williams, 16, Oboe

Listen to full program:


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Today we featured our first oboe player, Lauren Williams. Since we don't feature the oboe too often on the radio, I asked Lauren to give us a basic overview of the instrument so even those who think they know the instrument may learn something new! Lauren has twice been named a classical soloist of the year by Downbeat Magazine and you definitely want to check out this performance!

Highlight: listen to Lauren perform one of two Fantasy Pieces by Carl Nielsen:


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Program:
with pianist Tatyana Stepanova

Oboe Concerto (Vaughan Williams), mvt. 1

Sonata for oboe and piano (Poulenc)

Six Metamorphoses after Ovid for solo oboe (Britten)

Two Fantasy Pieces (Nielsen)

Biography:

Lauren Williams is sixteen years old and has been playing the oboe for six years. She is currently a high school junior at the Chicago Academy for the Arts, majoring in music. With extensive solo, chamber, and orchestral experience, Lauren is the principal oboist of Midwest Young Artists' Symphony Orchestra, and for two years was a member of Quintessence, a nationally recognized youth woodwind quintet. Last year, Quintessence was category winner at the Chicago National Chamber Music Competition, and in May was selected as one of only three woodwind quintets to compete in the quarterfinals of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

As a soloist, Lauren recently made her debut performing the Strauss Oboe Concerto with the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra. Past awards include being woodwind/brass/percussion category winner of the 2006 and 2009 Walgreens' National Concerto Competition, third prize winner in the 2008 James Glacking Young Artists Competition, and last spring won the Classical Soloist Award given by Downbeat, an international music magazine. In the summer of 2007, she also received the James Sedlack Memorial Scholarship, an award given to one young musician a year to further their musical education. This past summer, Lauren was one of only eight oboists from across the country chosen to study with John Ferrillo, principal oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, in addition to participating in their woodwind and opera workshops. This spring, she was chosen to participate in the Chicago Youth Music Initiative Orchestra, which in April has the opportunity to perform alonside the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, at Symphony Center.

Lauren has also performed as a soloist both on oboe and English horn at masterclasses conducted by Elaine Douvas (Juilliard), Louis Rosenblatt (former English Horn, Philadelphia Orchestra), Linda Strommen (Juilliard, Indiana University), Laura Ahlbeck (Bard, BU College of Fine Arts) and Robert Sheena (English Horn, BSO) among many others. In addition, she has performed at numerous chamber music masterclasses with her woodwind quintet, conducted by such internationally renowned artists as Mathieu Dufour (CSO), William Bennett (London Symphony), John Bruce Yeh (CSO), the Avalon String Quartet, Barbara Butler (Northwestern), and Dale Clevenger (CSO). She currently studies with Naomi Bensdorf Frisch.

In addition to oboe and English horn, Lauren also plays piano, which she currently studies with Jason Patera at the Chicago Academy for the Arts.