ROBERT ATHERHOLT
Professor of Oboe

Principal, Houston Symphony B. Mus. (1976), M.Mus. (1977) Juilliard School of Music 1105 Alice Pratt Brown Hall 713-348-3234 oboerob@rice.edu

ROBERT ATHERHOLT has been principal oboist of the Houston Symphony for 25 years. His numerous solo appearances and festival residencies have earned him the acclaim of audiences and critics worldwide.

Atherholt received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with the distinguished oboist, Robert Bloom. Only two years after his graduation, he had already achieved his first position as principal oboist, with the New Jersey Symphony. He soon moved on to the Opera Orchestra of New York, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. He has also served as principal of the Santa Fe Opera Company; as guest principal with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink and with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; and as acting principal oboist on the Boston Symphony's European tour 2000 with Seiji Ojawa conducting. While holding his present position with the Houston Symphony, to which he was appointed in 1984, he has established himself not only as a leader in that orchestra's distinguished woodwind section, but as a soloist as well, performing numerous concerti with the Houston Symphony, including the Mozart concerto and the world premier of Schumann/Picker's Romances and Interludes. Both of these were later recorded with this orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach. In the summer season he is principal oboist of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony and the Grand Teton Music Festival.

Atherholt has appeared as a soloist not only with the Houston Symphony, but also around the world. He performed with Spain's Orquestra Sinfonica del Pricipado de Asturias Oviedo in 1999 and in Japan's Pacific Music Festival in 1995. He has toured Japan and Europe as a member of the Houston Symphony Chamber Players and recorded Schoenberg's Woodwind Quintet, Opus 26, with that group. As a chamber musician, he appears regularly with Da Camera of Houston and has performed at Marlboro, the Pacific Music Festival, Ravinia, Caramoor, Orcas Island and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.