Guest Oboist From National Symphony Orchestra to Perform

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William Wielgus, oboist

Guest oboist William Wielgus will present "A Celebration of Peruvian Music" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, in Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.

Wielgus has recently retired from a 30-year career as an oboist in the presigious National Symphony Orchestra, and has been in residence this week working with students in the Department of Music in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. The concert will feature music of Peru, either written and/or arranged by Peruvian composers or featuring Peruvian motives in the music. Featured composers are Zipoli, Muñoz, Alvarez, Pulgar-Vidal, Campos, Mueller, Asato, Mendoza, Still, and Robles.  

Wielgus will collaborate on the concert with U of A faculty members Tomoko Kashiwagi, Theresa Delaplain and Lia Uribe; and with U of A students Maigen Anderson, Christopher Barnett and Fiona Slaughter.

The concert is presented as a Hispanic Heritage Month event, and is sponsored by the Department of Music and the Concerts and Artists Fund.

Wielgus was a member of the oboe section of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1990 to 2017 upon the invitation of Mstislav Rostropovich. Previously he served as English horn of the Oklahoma Symphony and principal oboe of the South Bend Symphony. He is presently on the oboe faculty at American University and has held academic positions at West Virginia University, St. Mary's College, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  

He earned degrees from Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an Artist Diploma form the University of Cincinnati. His principal teachers include Ray Still, Jerry Sirucek and Marc Fink. He has also appeared at many major summer music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood and Spoleto. A charter member of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, he especially enjoys their informal yet dedicated approach to music making and the opportunity to play unusual repertoire.  

Wielgus is featured as principal oboe on the ECO recordings of works by Gassman and Adamo and has appeared as soloist in works of Bach, Honneger, and Strauss. He also serves as Artistic Coordinator of Teatro Lirico of Washington D.C., an organization promoting Hispanic music in that region. He is actively involved in a project to research, commission, perform, and record Peruvian oboe music and has presented recitals at the conservatories of Lima and Trujillo and this August performed all-Peruvian programs in Lima at the Gran Teatro Nacional and the Centro Cultural Ricardo Palma.