Orchestra

San Francisco Symphony

Masterclass

Oboe

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Eugene Izotov is one of today's leading wind players, internationally renowned for his “fiery temperament” (The Boston Globe), “ravishing playing” (The Washington Post), and "luminous beauty of tone" (The San Francisco Chronicle).
His meteoric career includes positions as Principal Oboe with the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Symphony, and currently the San Francisco Symphony. Izotov has also appeared as guest principal oboist with Boston Symphony and New York Philharmonic. Eugene Izotov is the first Russian-born musician in history to hold a principal wind position in any major American symphony orchestra. His numerous awards include top prizes at solo competitions in Saint Petersburg (1991), Moscow (1990), New York (1995), and at the Fernand Gillet International Competition (2001). Izotov has appeared over 70 times as soloist with Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Metropolitan Opera, Pacific Music Festival, and Mainly Mozart Orchestra and has collaborated as soloist with Bernard Haitink, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Nicholas McGegan, Riccardo Muti, Edo De Waart, Ludovic Morlot, Ton Koopman, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Eugene Izotov has recorded for Sony Classical, BMG, Boston Records, Elektra, CSOResound, SFSMedia, and was a featured soloist with the Chicago Symphony under the baton of John Williams on the Oscar-nominated recording for Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln. He has also been a guest soloist on NPR’s Live from Here with Chris Thile. 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, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, André Watts, and the Tokyo String Quartet. One of today's most prolific teachers, Mr. Izotov serves on the faculties of San Francisco Conservatory of Music, The Colburn School (Los Angeles), and at Music Academy (Santa Barbara) and has previously taught at The Juilliard School. He presents masterclasses at conservatories across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia including Oberlin, Cleveland Institute of Music, New World Symphony, Aspen, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Tanglewood Music Center, Lynn University, Interlochen Center for the Arts, University of Michigan, Conservatoire de Musique (Luxembourg), HuyndaI Center (Korea), Shanghai Orchestra Academy (China), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Verbier Festival (Switzerland), Glenn Gould School, McGill University, and Domaine Forget (Canada). Eugene Izotov was the 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. In 2019 Eugene Izotov was invited by Valery Gergiev to serve on the first-ever woodwind jury of the Tchaikovsky International Competition. Izotov’s former students are enjoying careers in symphony orchestras of Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Saint Louis, Montreal, Kansas City, Buffalo, San Diego, Lexington, Ontario, Atlanta, Louisiana, Osaka, Fort Worth, Jerusalem, and others.
Born in Moscow, Russia, Izotov studied at the Gnesin School of Music with Ivan Pushechnikov and Sergey Velikanov. He is the recepient of the Distinguished Almuni Award from Boston University, where he studied with Ralph Gomberg after immigrating to the United States in 1991.