Oboe

Basil Reeve

principal oboe
Grace B. Dayton Chair

Principal Oboe Basil Reeve, a native New Yorker, was the lead oboist with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and New York City Opera before joining the Minnesota Orchestra in 1971. In February 2009 he and the Orchestra premiered the Christopher Rouse Oboe Concerto in concerts led by Music Director Osmo Vänskä.

Throughout his years in Minnesota, Reeve has performed most of the major oboe repertoire, ranging from concertos by Telemann and J.S. Bach to those of Strauss, Vaughan Williams and Henze. At the Monadnock Music Festival in 1994, Reeve premiered James Bolle’s Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra, which was written for him. He subsequently recorded the work for Gasparo (released 1997) on a disc that includes his performance of Bolle’s Eight Pieces for Oboe and Violin with Minnesota Orchestra Concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis. Reeve has performed additional solos at the Spoleto Music Festival, North Carolina Festival of the Arts, Festival of the City of Mexico, International Festival-Institute at Round Top (Texas), and at conferences of the International Double Reed Society.

Reeve served for 37 years as co-artistic director of the long-standing Twin Cities group the Musical Offering chamber ensemble. He has also performed in virtually every Minnesota Orchestra Sommerfest and winter season chamber series during his tenure. Reeve teaches year-round privately and at the University of Minnesota, and summers at the Round Top Institute.

Reeve began oboe studies at age 12, working initially with Carl Holub and Josef Marx. At the Juilliard School he studied with Lois Wann and served as principal oboe of the Juilliard Symphony under Jean Morel. He won a Fulbright scholarship to study in Holland, but instead became principal oboe of the New York City Opera, a post he held for five years. During that time, Reeve also served as a member of the New York Baroque Ensemble, Carnegie Wind Quintet, and New Amsterdam Ensemble.

Reeve plays an oboe of cocobolo wood made by A. Laubin of New York City.