- Major
- Performance Diploma
- Artist Diploma
- Bachelor of Music (BM)
- Performance Diploma (PDip)
- Artist Diploma (ADip)
The oboe studio's supportive atmosphere enhances weekly private lessons, studio classes, and collaborative orchestral excerpt classes with master teacher Robert Walters. He enjoys a worldwide reputation and decades of varied performance experience as an orchestral solo English horn player and chamber musician.
Time to Play
We place first-year students among returning students equally and fairly within the sections of all ensembles. We nurture them in a collaborative studio environment to inspire personal growth and development. Through orchestral, chamber music, jazz, improvisational, and historical through contemporary music for the oboe, we encourage versatility and provide immense breadth of experience.
Master Classes
Weekly studio classes and regular master classes for oboe students involve mock orchestral auditions, reinforcement of fundamentals, chamber music performances, solo recital performances, guest master classes, and many other types of performance opportunities. We encourage students to support their colleagues with positive and constructive feedback. Oberlin cultivates a learning environment in which students are open to making mistakes without consequence in larger public performances.
Sample Courses
- WELL 110 - Intro to Body Mapping 2 credits
- APST 802 - Orchestral Repertoire for Woodwinds 2 credits
- APST 805 - Contemporary Chamber Music 2 credits
- PHYS 054 - Musical Acoustics 4 credits
Oboe Faculty
Conservatory faculty maintain active performance schedules while remaining accessible and committed to their students. Individual instruction is paramount to helping students develop their mechanical, technical, stylistic, psychological, and musical skills.
See Profile“I try to convey music to students in such a way that is at once professionally specific but also has broader, deeper implications so they can have a lifelong, deep relationship to it that’s very satisfying.”
Robert Walters, Professor of Oboe and English Horn
Oboe News
Life After Oberlin
Oboe and double-degree graduates are prepared to pursue professional music careers as soloists or with a range of ensembles—from major orchestras to contemporary chamber groups; many earn principal appointments. Others work in schools, conservatories, and in professions outside of music.