Stephen Wade

Stephen Wade is currently the Assistant Principal Oboist of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Lowell College of Music and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. His principal teachers include Ira Deutsch, Wayne Rapier, David Weber, John DLouhy, Elaine Douvas, John Ferrillo, Stuart Dunkel, Richard Killmer, Randall Ellis, and Peter Smith. He has performed with the Goldovsky Opera Orchestra, NuClassix, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Nashua Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Virtuosi, Symphony Pro Musica, the Connecticut Opera Orchestra, CONCORA, Orchestra New England, and at the Monadnock and Newport Music Festivals. Mr. Wade has played at both Emmanuel Church and King’s Chapel in Boston under Daniel Pinkham, Craig Smith, David Hoose, and John Harbison, and in the American Repertory Theater’s groundbreaking production of Handel’s Orlando directed by Peter Sellars. He has been the featured soloist many times in concerti by Vivaldi, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Jean Françaix, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Samuel Barber, and William Bolcom. He and violinist Katheryn Winterstein have recorded J. S. Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1064, with the Boston Virtuosi. In April 2011, he gave the world premier performance of the Concerto for Oboe and Wind Ensemble by Thomas Briggs with the United States Coast Guard Band, CDR Kenneth Megan, conductor, a work notable for its jazz styles and improvisatory solo part. In February 2012 he was invited to perform Beethoven and Britten in recital at the home of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force Band in Tokyo. Mr. Wade was Principal Oboe of the United States Coast Guard Band until November 2012, when he retired after a distinguished 30-year career performing throughout the United States as well as in the Soviet Union, England, Japan, and Taiwan. He has been a member of the faculty at Westfield State College in Westfield, MA, since October 2007.