Alex Klein
Alex Klein was the longtime principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has made many recordings. He is the artistic director of several festivals and has continued to perform and record, including the album When There Are No Words... Revolutionary Works for Oboe and Piano in 2022.
Klein was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1964 and grew up in the city of Curitiba. He was immediately attracted to the oboe but did not have the wherewithal to obtain an instrument immediately. So at age nine, he started on the recorder and also began the difficult task of mastering the oboe's temperamental reed, practicing that at home without the instrument to the annoyance of neighbors. Soon, he was making rapid progress; at 11, he joined the Brazilian chamber ensemble Camerata Antigua. Klein performed widely in Brazil as a teenager. He then moved to the U.S. for studies at the Oberlin Conservatory with James Caldwell, earning a bachelor's degree in music and an artist diploma. Prizes helped his career along, including those at the Lucarelli International Competition for Solo Oboe Players at New York's Carnegie Hall and the 1988 International Competition for Musical Performers Geneva International Music Competition in Geneva, Switzerland (where he was the first oboist to win first prize since the famed Heinz Holliger). Klein taught at the University of Washington and performed in the Seattle area from 1992 to 1994. In 1995, he became the principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and moved to Chicago. In addition to recording many albums with the orchestra, Klein began to make solo albums on the Cedille label; in 1999, he released his debut, Oboe Concertos of the Classical Era, with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra under conductor Paul Freeman. In 2002, he snared a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Performance for the Chicago Symphony's recording of Richard Strauss' Oboe Concerto.
Klein also appeared with other orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Chicago Sinfonietta, but during this period, he began to suffer the effects of focal dystonia. He resigned his Chicago Symphony chair in 2005 but continued to perform and record, adjusting his playing to compensate for the problems caused by the disorder. A recording of Vivaldi oboe concertos appeared on Cedille in 2010. Klein returned to the Chicago Symphony in 2016 but departed once again the following year. In 2018, he became the principal oboist of the Calgary Philharmonic; he continued to hold that position as of the early 2020s. In 2019, joined by regular accompanist Phillip Bush, Klein released the album Twentieth Century Oboe Sonatas on Cedille; it was followed in 2022 by When There Are No Words... Revolutionary Works for Oboe and Piano. Klein has taught at Oberlin College and Northwestern University. He is the artistic director of festivals in Brazil, the U.S., and the French Antilles.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Artistes similaires
-
Œuvres pour hautbois & orchestre (Franz Krommer - Johann Nepomuk Hummel)
Classique - Paru chez Cedille Records le 21 juin 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liquid Melancholy: Clarinet Music of James M Stephenson
John Bruce Yeh, Lake Forest Symphony, Alex Klein, Patrick Godon, Vladimir Kulenovic, Chicago Pro Musica
Classique - Paru chez Cedille le 13 avr. 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Twentieth Century Oboe Sonatas
Musique de chambre - Paru chez Cedille le 12 avr. 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
-
When There Are No Words: Revolutionary Works for Oboe & Piano
Classique - Paru chez Cedille le 11 mars 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Concertos pour hautbois
Alex Klein, New Brandenburg Collegium, Anthony Newman
Classique - Paru chez Cedille le 28 sept. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concertos pour hautbois du XXè siècle
Alex Klein, Daniela Kosinova, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Paul Freeman
Classique - Paru chez Cedille le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Song Without Words (Version for Oboe & Piano)
Classique - Paru chez Cedille le 11 mars 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Greatest Works Schubert (N) ever Wrote for the Oboe (Arr. for Oboe)
Alex Klein, Craig Sheppard, Carmen Pelton
Musique de chambre - Paru chez Soundset le 1 juin 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poetic Inspirations (Alex Klein, hautbois - Richard Young, alto - Ricardo Castro, piano)
Classique - Paru chez Cedille Records le 11 mars 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
-
Fantasies and Partitas
Musique de chambre - Paru chez Soundset le 1 juin 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Was Made for Loving You
Pop - Paru chez Hug Productions le 29 juin 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scratch That...It's A Breakdown
Rock - Paru chez Zsa Zsa Gaboo Records le 22 août 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Right on the Water
Pop - Paru chez Hug Productions le 5 avr. 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Up and Down
Électronique - Paru chez Electronic Dance Series le 10 août 2018
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Murder of Crows
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Zsa Zsa Gaboo Records le 16 janv. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo