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|   Oboist Jeffrey Stephenson has quickly established himself as a superb orchestral performer, chamber musician and soloist, with performances across North America in exciting venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Eastman Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Hall and The Banff Centre for the Arts.  He is the First Prize winner of the 2007 Gillet-Fox International Oboe Competition, and is the newly appointed Acting Principal Oboe of the Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet for the 2007-2008 season.  He served as Guest Principal Oboe of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Subsitute Principal Oboe for the Symphony Orchestra of Southeast Texas for the 2006-2007 season.  In his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, he has performed with the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra and was awarded first prize in the 2000 Southeastern Young Artist Competition.
      He has participated in the Norfolk and Sarasota Chamber Music Festivals, the National Orchestral Institute, the BRAVO! Vail Valley Music Festival, Brevard Music Center and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival.  In the summer of 2005 he attended the Banff Music and Sound Program and performed as a soloist with the Banff Centre Chamber Orchestra.  He has performed under the batons of many noted conductors, including Pinchas Zukerman, Eduardo Muller, David Robertson, Gerard Schwartz and Gunther Schuller.       
      Mr. Stephenson is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music.  In 2006 he graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree and Performer's Certificate in oboe performance.  While still an undergraduate student at Eastman, he joined the oboe section of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2005, and also performed with the Rochester Chamber Orchestra and the Rochester Bach Festival Orchestra.  In April of 2007 he returned to perform as a soloist with Chamber Music Rochester alongside principal members of the orchestra, and in May he represented the Shepherd School of Music in a nationally-broadcast collaborative recital at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  A lover of outreach and education, he has participated in The Shepherd School's JUMP! Concerts for Young Audiences, and completed three week-long residences in the school systems of Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake, NY.  His principal teachers include Richard Killmer, Robert Atherholt and Rebecca Nagel. 

Sound clips coming soon!!