Biography

Praised as "brilliant" (San Francisco Chronicle) and as "one of the top players of his time" (Chicago Sun Times), Russian-born oboist Eugene Izotov combines a multi-faceted career of orchestral, solo, teaching, and chamber music engagements.

Appointed by Daniel Barenboim in 2005, Eugene Izotov is the principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and over the past twenty years has enjoyed numerous affiliations and guest appearances with leading orchestras such as the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (New York), Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Eugene Izotov is the first Russian-born musician to hold a principal oboe position in any major American symphony orchestra. His numerous awards include top prizes at solo competitions in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, New York, and the First Prize at the Fernand Gillet International Competition.

Izotov appears regularly as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and has also been a featured soloist with the Boston Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, United States Army Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony, performing works by Mozart, Strauss, Marcello, Krommer, Hummel and Bach. His recent solo recording “Sound in Motion” has been released on Boston Records and includes works by Rachmaninoff, Silvestrini, Pasculli, Bozza, and Ravel. An avid chamber musician, Eugene Izotov has collaborated regularly with the MET Chamber Ensemble throughout its residence at Carnegie Hall, as well as with Yefim Bronfman, Pinchas Zukerman, Jamie Laredo, Yo Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, James Levine, André Watts, Michael Tilson Thomas, and the Tokyo String Quartet.

Mr. Izotov teaches at DePaul and Roosevelt universities and has previously taught at the Juilliard School and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Additionally, he continues to present regular master classes at conservatories across the nation and abroad, such as New World Symphony, Boston University, Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, San Francisco Conservatory, University of Michigan, University of California at Berkeley, Mannes College, Tanglewood Institute, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Interlochen Center for the Arts. In 2003, at the invitation of Maestro James Levine, Mr. Izotov joined the woodwind faculty of the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland. Since 2005 he serves on the International Principals faculty of the Pacific Music Festival founded by Leonard Bernstein in Sapporo, Japan. Eugene Izotov has served as an oboe mentor for the 2011 YouTube Symphony Orchestra during its residency at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia which included a live internet simulcast to over 30 million of worldwide viewers.

Born in Moscow, Russia, Izotov studied at the Gnesin School of Music with Ivan Pushechnikov and Sergey Velikanov and at Boston University School of Fine Arts with Ralph Gomberg.