Keisuke Wakao is assistant principal oboe with the BSO, where he occupies the Farla and Harvey Chet Krentzman chair. He has been principal oboe with the New World Symphony and substitute oboe with the New York Philharmonic. He was soloist with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra with Joseph Robinson under Kazuyoshi Akiyama and chamber soloist with the New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa. In 1990, he performed the Mozart oboe concerto under Michael Tilson Thomas in Europe. Wakao was a finalist in the Lucarelli International Oboe Competition.
Diploma, Manhattan School of Music. Oboe with Joseph Robinson. Studies with Alfred Genovese, Ralph Gomberg at the Tanglewood Music Center. Studies with John Mack, Peter Bowman, and Eric Barr. Recordings on Denon. Also faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and Keisuke Wakao Oboe Camp, Tokyo.
Photo by Marco Borggreve/courtesy BSO
Collaborations
- Director, the Daikanyama Hillside Terrace Music Festival in Tokyo
- Founder, Church of the Redeemer Concert Series in Chestnut Hill
- Director, the Ventfort Hall Summer Chamber Music Concert Series in Lenox
- Pianist Christoph Eschenbach