CSO Music Director Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) have named Alex Klein as Principal Oboe, effective August 4, 2016.
Klein was first appointed to the position of Principal Oboe by then-CSO Music Director Daniel Barenboim in 1995. Klein served in this capacity through 2004 until his tenure was interrupted by the onset of musician’s focal dystonia, an incurable neurological condition which affected two fingers in his left hand. After extensive and varied physical therapy treatments, as well as alterations to his instrument allowing his fingers to reach the keys more easily, he was able to return to orchestral performance. Klein won the CSO audition in June 2016, and his first concert as Principal Oboe will take place at the Ravinia Festival on August 5, 2016.
Alex Klein began his professional career as an oboist at age 11 in his native Brazil when he was invited to join Camerata Antiqua, one of Brazil’s premier chamber ensembles. A former First Prize winner of the Geneva International Competition and the New York International Oboe Competition, Klein is a renowned soloist who has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Czech National Symphony, and orchestras in China and Latin America, as well as in performances at the Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, Kansas where he has been a festival musician since 2007.
Also an acclaimed recording artist, Klein won a Grammy® Award in 2002 for Best Instrumental soloist with Orchestra for his recording of Richard Strauss’ Oboe Concerto with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on the Teldec label.
After his departure from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2004, Klein diversified his musical activities to include conducting and music administration with an aim to accelerate the development of musical artistry in Brazil and Latin America. Klein is the founder and Artistic Director of the Santa Catarina Music Festival (FEMUSC), which has become Latin America’s largest music festival under his direction. Klein is also the founder and General Director of the Program of Social Inclusion through Music and the Arts (PRIMA), which establishes youth and children’s orchestras in at-risk public school systems in his native Brazil. An accomplished educator, Klein has given master classes at the Juilliard School of Music, National Conservatories of Paris and Lyon (France), and Beijing Central Conservatory (China).
Prior to his recent appointment as Principal Oboe, Klein appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as guest principal oboe in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and Verdi’s Falstaff under Riccardo Muti in April 2016 subscription concerts at Orchestra Hall and in Mahler’s Second Symphony under James Levine in July 2016 at the Ravinia Festival
