REDLANDS –One of the world’s leading oboe players will be performing locally next week.  Liang Wang, principal oboe player with the New York Philharmonic, will be featured as a soloist  with the Redlands Symphony on April 14 in Memorial Chapel at the University of Redlands.
On tap for that evening will be several pieces, including the Straus Oboe Concerto, Mozart’s Overture to Figaro and Haydn’s Symphony No. 104, all of which will feature Wang. He will also provide his interpretation of Rhapsody, a concerto for oboe and horn written by the Redlands Symphony’s most accomplished oboist, Francisco Castillo.
“Liang Wang is one of the most extraordinary musicians performing in today’s world of classical music,” said Redlands Symphony Maestro Jon Robertson, “To have him here, playing with our orchestra, is a great honor and enormously exciting.”
Born in Qing Dao, China, Wang, now 32, has been playing the oboe since the age of seven. Wang is not new to Southern California, having achieved a full scholarship to Riverside County’s Idyllwild Arts Academy in 1995, after impressing his teachers at the Beijing Central Conservatory in the early 1990s. As a teenager, he captured the Jack Smith Award at the Pasadena Instrumental Spotlight Competition of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Wang completed his bachelor’s degree in 2003 at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
He later attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and was a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied with John de Lance, the principal oboist of The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Wang’s resumé includes being the principal oboe with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra in 2003-04, principal oboe of the Santa Fe Opera in 2004-05, principal oboe with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2005-06 and associate principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony as well as guest principal oboist with the Chicago and San Francisco Symphony orchestras.
Wang has taught at the Cincinnati Conservatory and the Juilliard School and was a faculty member at UC Berkeley. He is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.
Wang joined the New York Philharmonic in September 2006 as principal oboe. In February 2008, he performed the Richard Strauss Oboe Concerto with The New York Philharmonic in Hong Kong.
At the April 14 performance, Maestro Robertson will conduct Castillo’s Rhapsody in what is to be its world premiere. Maestro Co Nguyen, the Symphony’s assistant conductor, will conduct the Mozart and the piece by Strauss.
The Memorial Chapel is located on the university campus at 1200 E. Colton Ave. The concert will commence at 8 p.m. Doors will open at 7 p.m. Tickets are available from $15.