Oboe

John Snow

associate principal oboe

Associate Principal Oboe John Snow—former principal oboe of the New Zealand Symphony and former acting principal for ensembles as varied as the Santa Fe Opera, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Pittsburgh Symphony—became a member of the Minnesota Orchestra in 1999 and in 2005 won a McKnight Artist Fellowship. In October 2008 he was featured with three Orchestra colleagues in performances of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante under the direction of Sarah Hicks.

An active chamber musician, Snow performs regularly with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. With the ensemble, he has toured Japan and Europe and recorded for the Deutsche Grammophon label. Snow is co-founder of the Detroit Chamber Winds, the New Zealand Soloists and the Talisman Trio, an ensemble specializing in music for oboe, bassoon and piano. He has appeared at the Norfolk Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Victoria Bach Festival, Classicfest, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival and Oregon Bach Festival. In 1998 he made his debut with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Snow is a passionate advocate of new music, and has commissioned and premiered several works. He collaborated with composer Dan Welcher to create a chamber work for oboe and bassoon which he premiered at the 1997 International Double Reed Society convention in Chicago. Welcher also wrote his 1999 oboe concerto, Venti del Mar, for Snow, who premiered it with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

Snow received a master’s degree in music from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Ronald Roseman. He has adjudicated and presented master classes at universities and music schools around the country and in New Zealand. Snow has served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Ithaca College, St. Olaf College and Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, and was a visiting professor of oboe at the Eastman School of Music. Before moving to Minneapolis, Snow was professor of oboe at the University of Texas in Austin. He joined the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Minnesota in the fall of 2000.

Snow is a Buffet Crampon artist and plays exclusively on a Buffet Green Line oboe.