Erik Larson, Oboe
Erik Larson is currently principal oboe for the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago 21st Century Music Ensemble, and is a music faculty member at the University of West Alabama. He has previously served as principal oboe for the Columbus Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Hingham Chamber Orchestra and the Classical Symphony Orchestra of Chicago, and also as Conductor and Music Director for the Soli Deo Gloria Chamber Singers and Chamber Players. He has performed in Australia, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, and in May of 2008 will be performing in a series of concerts in Israel and Jordan.

His primary instructors have been Ralph Gomberg (Principal Oboe Emeritus, Boston Symphony Orchestra) and Ray Still (former Principal Oboe, Chicago Symphony Orchestra), and has performed under such conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Vaclav Nelhybel, Joseph Silverstein, and Louis Lane. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Boston University School for the Arts, and a Master of Music and Certificate of Performance from Northwestern University's School of Music.

He has previously been a staff member at Northwestern University and served on the faculties of the University of Alabama, Truman State University and Olivet Nazarene University.

In July of 2004, he presented a lecture-demonstration on “Enhanced and Alternate Oboe Fingerings” at the International Double Reed Society Convention in Melbourne, Australia. The University of Melbourne subsequently published his paper by the same title. He is the oboe soloist on the multiple award-winning soundtrack for the movie The Eternal Return, released by Inova in 2005. He is the author of “A Short History of the August Förster Kunsthandwerklicher Flügel-und-Pianobau” and his “Conductor's Guide to Aiding the Recreational Oboist” has recently been published by Lines and Spaces. He is active as a recitalist, and frequently leads clinics and masterclasses in high schools in the Chicago, St. Louis and Atlanta metro areas, and in universities throughout the United States.