Chamber musicEdward Dolbashian
An oboist and pianist by early training, Mr. Dolbashian is a graduate of the famed High School of Performing Arts in New York City. He made his solo oboe debut in Town Hall, NYC, NY, 1969. He later attended the Hartt School of Music with degrees in Oboe Performance. Mr. Dolbashian was a member of the Hartford (Connecticut) Symphony Orchestra and the Hartford Symphony Woodwind Quintet for ten years. He also served as principal oboist of the Hartford Chamber Orchestra, and the Goldovsky Opera Company.
Mr. Dolbashian’s conducting career began when he accepted the directorship of the Holyoke Symphony Orchestra in Holyoke, Massachusetts. His orchestral conducting studies took him to the prestigious Pierre Monteaux School of Orchestra Conducting in Maine, studying under Charles Bruck; and to Yale University, where he served as student conducting assistant to Otto Werner-Mueller en route to earning a Master of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting. Further studies took place at the Tanglewood Institute, with Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn, and Gustav Meier, and the Boris Goldovsky Opera Conducting Seminar.
As Director of Orchestras and Orchestra Conducting Studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia from 1985 to 2017, Edward Dolbashian led the University Philharmonic, which won numerous awards and received many invitations to perform locally, regionally, and nationally. including a performance at the prestigious Music Educators National Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.
During his tenure at the University of Missouri, Mr. Dolbashian also served as Music Director of the Alton Symphony (1993-2009), the Compton Heights Band of St. Louis (1998 -2021), and the St. Louis Civic Orchestra (2001-2022), a position from which he recently retired.
While a native of the northeastern part of the United States, Edward Dolbashian has made the Midwest his home for many years and has contributed immeasurably to the musical growth of musicians and audiences everywhere.