Nancy Ambrose King, oboe, is the first-prize winner of the Third New York International Competition for Solo Oboists, held in 1995. She has appeared as soloist throughout the United States and abroad, including performances with the St. Petersburg, Russia, Philharmonic, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic, Tokyo Chamber Orchestra, Puerto Rico Symphony, Orchestra of the Swan in Birmingham, England, Festival Internacionale de Musica in Buenos Aires, New York String Orchestra, Amarillo Symphony, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and Sinfonia da Camera. She has performed as recitalist in Weill Recital Hall and as soloist at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. She has recorded eleven CDs of works for the oboe on Boston Records, Cala Records, Equilibrium, Naxos and Centaur Records. Recent releases include “IllumiNation” featuring concertos by Scott McAllister, Michael Daugherty, and Alyssa Morris; the “Halle” Trio Sonatas of G.F. Handel; “Global Reflections” recorded with the Prague Chamber Orchestra and featuring the works of Strauss, Skalkottas, Sierra, and Foss, as well as the premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Oboe Concerto with the University of Michigan Symphony Band. She also recorded a Youtube video channel, “Trois Trios/Deux Duos” with colleagues Jeffrey Lyman, bassoon and Martin Katz, piano, and can be heard performing on the Athena, Arabesque, and CBS Masterworks labels. She was a finalist in the Fernand Gillet Oboe Competition held in Graz, Austria, and has been heard as soloist on WQXR radio in New York City and NPR’s “Performance Today”. She is on the faculty of the Sarasota Music Festival, has appeared as a recitalist throughout the world and was a member of the jury for the esteemed 2009 Barbirolli and the 2016 Muri, Switzerland Oboe Competitions. Ms. King has written a highly successful e-book for Apple I-Tunes titled “Making Oboe Reeds from Start to Finish with Nancy Ambrose King”.

Her playing has earned high praise from a variety of critics, including the American Record Guide: “Marvelously evocative, full of character, sultry and seductive, with a soft-spoken, utterly supple tone, and as musically descriptive as any I have heard…a fine exhibition of thoroughly musical oboe playing”; "She plays not only with delicacy, but also with an intense, almost rapturous sound that is second to none in expressivity and gradation. Delightful!". "...a lovely player with a tone that surpasses that of most other American oboe soloists. It defines delicacy, yet is strangely assertive, like a soft-spoken woman who nonetheless speaks up strongly when her mind is made up.", Fanfare: “Nancy Ambrose King is clearly a skilled musician of great promise, with a sterling technique”, and The Double Reed: “…thoughtful, expressive, and perfectly controlled performance of consummate accuracy. It’s not that she makes it sound easy-she makes it sound perfect”, "Ms. King's fluid technique, combined with clean and accurate articulations, makes the most complex passages flow and sounds effortless. Combine these aspects with a beautiful tone and a sensitive touch in the lyrical passages, all oboists have a new level to which to strive."

Currently Professor of Oboe and Chair of the Winds & Percussion Department at the University of Michigan, she was previously Associate Professor and University Scholar at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and served as the first female President of the International Double Reed Society. She is on the faculty of the Sarasota Music Festival. She has also served on the music faculties of Indiana University, Ithaca College, University of Northern Colorado, and Duquesne University Schools of Music, as well as the Idyllwild Music Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Marrowstone Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains of Steamboat Springs, and the Hot Springs Music Festival.

Professor King received her Doctor of Musical Arts, Master of Music, and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, studying with Richard Killmer. A graduate of the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Music degree where she studied with Arno Mariotti and Harry Sargous, Ms. King was the recipient of the school’s prestigious Stanley Medal and was honored with the 2010 Hall of Fame Award and the 2018 Harold Haugh Teaching Award by the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance.

The Ann Arbor Camerata is Ann Arbor's resident chamber orchestra dedicated to bringing exciting musical performances to diverse audiences throughout our community. We strive to provide a flow of artistic programs that only a chamber ensemble of our size and versatility can offer, spanning from music of the classical eras to new world-premiers of works by promising modern composers. As a modular ensemble, we pledge to expand our outreach by performing and educating at various new venues and performance spaces to engage the many music loving communities of Ann Arbor.

Oriol Sans joined the conducting faculty at the University of Michigan as assistant professor of Music in the Department of Conducting in 2015. His responsibilities include music director of the University Philharmonia Orchestra, director of the Contemporary Directions Ensemble, and teaching conducting. A native of Catalonia, Spain, Sans studied orchestral and choral conducting at the Barcelona Conservatory, receiving the school's Honors Award in both specialties upon graduation. Following his training in Spain, Sans brought his studies to the United States with maestro Kenneth Kiesler at U-M, where he received his masters degree in orchestral conducting and his doctorate in musical arts.

Victor Minke Huls holds a Bachelor’s of Music degree in Cello Performance from the University of Michigan and is now pursuing two Master’s Degrees, both in Cello and in Orchestral Conducting. He co-conducts the Ann Arbor Camerata with his colleague Jacobsen Woollen, and is a vigorous advocate for new music. The son of a violinist Max Huls and cellist Linda Minke, Victor Huls was home schooled and learned music from his parents. His mother served as his primary cello teacher into High School, his father giving musical inspiration. In 2010, Huls moved to Boston for his senior year where he studied with Michael Reynolds of the Muir String Quartet and Boston University. He attended the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in conjunction with New England Conservatory's Preparatory division. As assistant principal of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra with guidance by maestro Benjamin Zander, Huls performed the ninth symphonies of Dvorak and Mahler in Prague and Vienna in 2011. His studies in Boston included a string quartet which performed in the Fischoff Competition, as well as numerous chamber performances in Jordan Hall.

The four works featured on this disc are written for solo oboe and orchestra or chamber ensemble by American composers, each of which represents a similar style of descriptive, picturesque, and illuminating music with a popular flair. It is a synthesis of American contemporary music of popular appeal, with virtuosic and soulful writing ideally suited to the oboe by critically acclaimed composers.