Xiomara Mass is currently acting second oboe with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she began her musical training at the age of four and made her solo debut with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra when she was thirteen. Two years later Xiomara was accepted into the “Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico” where she studied with David Bourns, former Principal Oboe of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, and Pedro Díaz, solo English Horn of the Metropolitan Opera. Xiomara has worked with such renowned oboists as Elaine Douvas, Humbert Lucarelli, Hansjörg Schellenberger, Eugene Izotov and Scott Hostetler.
Xiomara participated in many prestigious music festivals, including “Tercer Festival de Dobles Cañas” in Panama, The Youth Orchestra of the Americas, Domaine Forget, St. Barth’s Music Festival, The Sunflower Music Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland and The New Hampshire Music Festival. She was selected to participate in 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 viewers worldwide.
In 2014, Xiomara won The Jerome and Elaine Nerenberg Foundation Scholarship award at the Musicians Club of Women Competition in Chicago. She is also the first prizewinner of the Tuesday Musical State Scholarship Competition in Akron, Ohio, and the first Chamber Music Competition at the “Conservatorio de Música” as a member of her woodwind quintet.
A former member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Xiomara was a featured soloist with Civic in J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin. During her years in Chicago she was an active freelancer and often performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Winds, Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra and Illinois Symphony Orchestra. She also substituted with the San Francisco Symphony as Assistant Principal Oboe.
Xiomara taught as an adjunct professor at the DePaul University School of Music and is currently teaching at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a BM in Oboe Performance and an Artist Diploma from Oberlin Conservatory, where she graduated with highest honors under the tutelage of Alex Klein and Robert Walters.