Katherine Needleman

Principal oboist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Katherine Needleman is a leading American wind player. She has made several recordings as a soloist and is also an important educator. Needleman was born in Baltimore on May 14, 1978. She attended the Baltimore School for the Arts but departed prior to receiving her degree so that she could enter the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her teacher there was Richard Woodhams. She graduated from the Curtis Institute when she was 20, and a first prize at the Gillet-Fox International Oboe Competition of the International Double Reed Society in 2003 boosted her career. In 2005, she joined the faculty of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, where she remained until 2020. In 2003, she became the principal oboist of the Baltimore Symphony, continuing to hold that position as of the early 2020s. Needleman has appeared as a soloist with various top U.S. orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Albany Symphony, as well as with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia. In 2016, Needleman made her recording debut on the Genuin label, joining pianist Jennifer Lim on an album of duos for oboe and piano. She has been active as a guest principal oboist with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago, the New York Philharmonic, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, among others. She also plays chamber music and is a founding member of the Mico Nonet and Trio La Milpa. Needleman has a strong commitment to contemporary music and has commissioned and performed various new works, including those by Luis Prado, Chia-Yu Hsu. and David Ludwig. In 2022, she became professor of oboe at the Curtis Institute, succeeding her teacher Woodhams. In 2023, Needleman returned on the Naxos label, performing the Oboe Concerto of Kevin Puts with the Baltimore Symphony, conducted by Marin Alsop; she had premiered the work at the Baltimore Symphony's New Music Festival.
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