Stephen Taylor, one of the most sought-after oboists in the country,
holds the Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III Solo Oboe Chair at the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is a solo oboist with the New York
Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the St. Luke’s Chamber
Ensemble (for which he has served as co-director of chamber music), the
American Composers Orchestra, the New England Bach Festival Orchestra,
and Speculum Musicae, and is co-principal oboist of the Orpheus Chamber
Orchestra.
His regular festival appearances include Spoleto, Aldeburgh, Caramoor,
Bravo! Vail Valley, Music from Angel Fire, Norfolk, Santa Fe, Aspen, and
Chamber Music Northwest. Among his more than 300 recordings is Elliott
Carter’s Oboe Quartet, for which Stephen received a Grammy nomination.
He has performed many of Carter’s works, giving the world premieres of
Carter’s A Mirror on Which to Dwell, Syringa, and Tempo e Tempi; and the
US premieres of Trilogy for Oboe and Harp, Oboe Quartet, and A 6 Letter
Letter.
He is entered in Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities and has
been awarded a performer’s grant from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard
University. Trained at The Juilliard School, he is on the faculties of
the Yale School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, and plays
rare Caldwell model Lorée oboes.
Being obsessed with buoyancy, he spends as much time as he can on old
wooden boats in Maine. He has performed at the SLLMF since 2014.
[2023]