Gillian Howard

Gillian Howard has over 30 years experience teaching oboists of all ages and levels. Her teaching offers a solid foundation for beginners, a focused challenge for advanced students, and a fun and rewarding playing experience for amateurs of all ages. At all levels, Gillian emphasizes sound technique, attention to musical expression, and the engagement of the player's ear to connect deeply to the music they are making. She loves helping students prepare for auditions, and working with current and future music teachers to help them attain the pedagogical skills to support young oboists in their own music programs.

Gillian enjoys a varied career on both modern and period instruments. She has played oboe and English horn with Esprit Orchestra, the Shaw Festival, Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, the Windsor Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic, Sinfonia Toronto, Toronto Mozart Players, and Talisker Players, and has appeared in the Elora Festival and Festival of the Sound. As a chamber musician, she has recorded, arranged, and performed new and traditional music for wind quintet. On Baroque oboe, she has performed with Tafelmusik, Aradia Ensemble, Toronto Bach Festival, Theatre of Early Music, Trinity Bach Project, Montreal Baroque, Toronto Masque Theatre, and Nota Bene Baroque Players.

Gillian holds Masters degrees in Performance and in Musicology from the University of Toronto. She teaches oboe at York University and oboe pedagogy at the University of Toronto, and has taught beginner and advanced oboists in arts programs in the TDSB for over twenty years. She has been Principal Oboe of the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra since 2010, and is delighted to have participated in the SPO’s acclaimed recordings of new works for wind ensemble by Canadian composers: A Canadian Panorama and Canadian Expedition.