Alex Klein poses for a portrait with an oboe.
Start: December 4, 2022 12 p.m.
End: December 4, 2022 8 p.m.
Location: Hahn Recital Hall
Contact Details
Lisa Kozenko
765-285-5549

About

Join Ball State oboe professor Lisa Kozenko and guest artist Alex Klein for a day of learning and music-making. Brazilian-born Grammy-Award-winning oboist Alex Klein is hailed as one of his instruments’ top performers in the world. Principal Oboe with the Calgary Philharmonic in Canada maintains an international career as a performer and pedagogue.This event is free and open to the public; preregistration is requested.

Recognized as one of today's leading oboists, Alex Klein began his musical studies in his native Brazil at age 9, continuing to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music. Klein holds a Grammy Award for his recording of the Concerto for Oboe by Richard Strauss with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Klein was Principal Oboe in Chicago for 9 years under Barenboim, and in 2017 was awarded the Oboe Emeritus Soloist title by current music director, Riccardo Muti.


Klein won prizes at the international competitions in Geneva, Tokyo, New York and Prague, and is regularly invited to adjudicate international competitions at these institutions as well as in England, China and Russia. Klein left his position at the Chicago Symphony due to complications related to Musician’s Focal Dystonia, a neurological condition that inhibits two fingers in his left hand. During his convalescence, Klein dedicated his musical career to the advancement of young talents from Latin America and neglected communities, founding FEMUSC in 2006, the São Paulo International Chamber Music Festival in 2008, and PRIMA - Program of Social Inclusion through Music and the Arts in 2012. Klein also performed as an orchestral conductor in front of major Brazilian orchestras and in the United States, Europe and was the first Brazilian to lead one of China's top orchestras. After re-learning the oboe and sufficiently overcoming the limitations of focal dystonia, Klein successfully re-auditioned for his former position and returned to the Chicago Symphony in what Chicago Magazine called "one of the greatest comebacks of classical music." Alex Klein today is Principal Oboe with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in Canada, as well as an oboe professor at DePaul University in Chicago, also teaching/performing at the Aspen, Buzzards Bay, Sunflower and Mostly Mozart festivals, and is regularly invited to teach master classes and recitals at North American universities. Klein recorded dozens of albums with the Chicago Symphony and as a soloist and chamber musician, with critical acclaim. His latest CD, released in 2019 by Cedille Records, with 20th Century Sonatas for oboe and piano, was nominated for a Grammy Award for “Producer of the Year”, and was thus lauded by critic David Canfield for Fanfare Magazine: "In my opinion, oboe playing simply does not get any better than this”.

Learn more about all of the School of Music's Feature Days.

Program and Schedule

DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM (PDF)

  • Noon–12:45 p.m. Warm Up and Play Together! with Dr. Kozenko and the Ball State Oboe Studio
  • 12:45–3:00 p.m. Oboe Master Class I with Alex Klein
  • 3:00–3:15 p.m. Break
  • 3:15–3:45 p.m. College Choices: Develop a Strategy that Includes Your Oboe
  • 3:45–5:15 p.m. Oboe Master Class II with Alex Klein
  • 5:15–5:45 p.m. Oboe Pen Pal Q&A with Alex Klein
  • 5:45–6:30 p.m. Roundtable: The Oboe Audition, Preparation & Reflection
  • 6:30-8:00 p.m. Oboe Reed Making & Critique with The Ball State Oboe Studio

*subject to change

Free Admission

This event is free and open to the public, however preregistration is requested. 

Parking

Parking is available in the McKinley Parking Garage (entrance on Ashland Avenue) located immediately south of Sursa Hall. This garage is free on weekends.