Oboe

Jennifer Cullinan, Oboe/English Horn

Jennifer Cullinan is 2nd Oboe/English Horn with the LA Opera, and 2nd Oboe with the Santa Barbara Symphony. She has played with many orchestras including the LA Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, LA Chamber Orchestra, Master Chorale, Pasadena Symphony, and Colorado Symphony Orchestra. She has degrees from the University of Colorado, the University of Southern California, and The Colburn School, and was a multiple fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Her chamber performances include Camerata Pacifica, Chamber Music Palisades, LACMA Sundays Live, the South Bay Chamber Music Society, Centrum Chamber Music Series in Port Townsend, WA, and Montage Music Society in Santa Fe, NM. She is on faculty at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music.

Michele Forrest, Oboe

Michele is thrilled to be playing a gorgeous music by Ennlo Morrlcone with her wonderfuI colleagues.
She is ordinarily found working around town in orchestras such as the Los Angeles Master Chorale Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, New West Symphony, LA Opera Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Recently, she has had the pleasure of playing shows at the Pantages such as Wicked, Les Misérables, and Miss Saigon.

Michele grew up in a small town in upstate New York, the great granddaughter of a bootlegger named Emma. She got a thrill from watching Ken Burns documentary special about prohibition and always feels as if she must have lived another life in New York City in the very early part of the twentieth century riding trolley cars and chasing ice trucks.

Her Covid project was learning about native plants and their often crucial role in protecting endangered insects such as our thousands of species of native bees. As a bonus this year, she has a swallowtail chrysalis in her yard waiting to become a butterfly.

Now she rescues all kinds of little critters mostly mixed breed mutts by fostering them until they can find forever homes. She lives in Altadena with her pup Mallie and her kitties Bobo and Smudge.

Leslie Reed, Oboe

Leslie Reed joined the LA Opera Orchestra in 1996. In 2009, Music Director James Conlon appointed her to the principal oboe chair, a position she currently holds. In addition, Ms. Reed is currently principal oboe of the Los Angeles Master Chorale Sinfonia. Her past positions include principal oboe of the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra,

Glendale Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra and the Long Beach Symphony.
She has appeared as guest principal oboe with the LA Chamber Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony, San Diego Symphony and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. She was invited to serve as acting associate principal oboe of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 1994-95 season under music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, including tours of Asia, Europe and the Eastern United States.

She was associate principal oboe of the Carmel Bach Festival for ten years, has performed extensively as solo oboe with Camerata Pacifica and has appeared with Jacaranda, La Jolla Summerfest and the Ojai Festival. Ms. Reed has appeared as soloist many times with local ensembles performing the concertos of Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Vaughan-Williams, Richard Strauss and David Newman. Her career has also extended to the Hollywood Studios participating in the scores for hundreds of films.

Ms. Reed was a first prize winner in the 1985 Coleman Competition and a semi-finalist in the 1988 Bert Lucarelli International Competition for Solo Oboists. She is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers include Wayne Rapier, John Mack and Allan Vogel

Catherine Del Russo, Oboe

Catherine Del Russo received her Bachelor of Music and Performance Certificate at the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Robert Sprenkle. She also received her Masters of Music Degree from Ohio University where she studied with John Mack in Cleveland. Since then, Ms. Del Russo has performed around the world, beginning with the Eastman Wind Ensemble to the Far East as Principal Oboe. After that, she performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Orchestra Filharmonica de Caracas, and Orquesta Municipal in Caracas, Venezuela. Ms. Del Russo has played with many orchestras in Los Angeles, including the Glendale Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the Desert Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Orchestra Santa Monica, Asia America Orchestra, Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, Riverside Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony, and was Associate Principal Oboe with the Honolulu Symphony. Currently, Catherine is Principal Oboe of Opera Santa Barbara, Downey Symphony, Thousand Oaks Philharmonic, Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra, Second Oboe in the Mozart Classical Orchestra, English horn with the Scott Dunn Orchestra, and English horn in the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Catherine has enjoyed playing on films, commercials and television shows. She has been a promoter of chamber music and new music in Los Angeles. In 2011, she won the Consortium of Southern California Chamber Music Presenter's with a chamber music trio for oboe, viola and piano. Catherine is the founding member of Lobo Ensemble, a chamber music group, consisting of oboe, violin, and cello, for which she performs recitals regularly. Catherine is Professor of Oboe at Westmont College and Occidental College.

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