Margaret Marco
Oboe Studio at KU
MargaretMarco.com
D.M.A. University of Illinois; M.M.E. The University of Iowa; B.M. Northwestern University
The Kansas City Star describes Margaret Marco’s oboe playing as “wistful and utterly engaging,” while the Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports “Marco’s deft and lilting expression …was often reminiscent of a soprano’s operatic aria.”
Dr. Marco is Professor of Oboe at the University of Kansas School of Music and principal oboist of the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. She began her professional career as the principal oboist of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Maracaibo in Venezuela. Since then, her many solo, chamber and orchestral performances have taken her to a variety of prestigious international venues in locations such as Japan, Costa Rica, England, Canada, the Czech Republic, Spain, Italy and China where she performed and presented master classes at the distinguished Central Conservatory and China Conservatory in Beijing. Other festivals and concert appearances include the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, California; the Conservatorio de Música in Puerto Rico; New Frontiers Music Festival in Laramie, Wyoming; the Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, KS; Encuentro de Oboes y Fagotes, in Costa Rica and many International Double Reed Society (IDRS) Conferences. She served as Chair of the prestigious IDRS Fernand Gillet-Hugo Fox Oboe Competition from 2009-2017 and holds degrees from Northwestern University, The University of Iowa and the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
A strong advocate for new music for her instrument, Dr. Marco has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, Mu Phi Epsilon and the University of Kansas to perform and record new chamber works by American composers. She can be heard with the KU Wind Ensemble performing Copland’s Quiet City on the NAXOS label and on NAVONA Records performing Gorgeous Nothings by Ingrid Stölzel and Bells and Grass by Juliana Hall. Other recordings include her solo CD, Hidden Gems: Oboe Sonatas of the French Baroque, Still LIfe: New Music for Oboe, Oboe d'amore and English horn, Allégresse; music for flute, oboe and piano and Fresh Ink. She is heard frequently performing on Kansas Public Radio. In 2016 she commissioned the A Siege Of Herons, a concerto for oboe d’amore and strings by Forrest Pierce, which she premiered with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Marco is a F. Loreé Oboe Artist.
Dr. Marco is very grateful for the instruction and mentoring she received from her amazing oboe teachers Ray Still, Grover Schiltz, Dan Stolper, Mark Weiger, Dean Sayles and Nancy Ambrose King.
Selected Awards & Grants
2001-Present
- Kansas Arts Commission Touring Program
2006-2007
- University of Kansas General Research Fund Grant
2006
- Sabbatical for Fall 2006. Title: Editing of French Baroque Chamber Music which if not currently published in modern edition. Recording project of these works. Performance of these works in national and international venues.
- Invited Soloist, International Double Reed Society Conference, Ball State University, Muncie, IN. Presented "Hidden Gems; Music of the French Baroque by Jean-Francois Bouin and Jacques-Christophe Huguenet.
2003
- Invited Soloist, International Double Reed Society Conference, University of Greensboro in North Carolina, Presented "Hidden Gems; Music of the French Baroque by Nicolas Chedeville and Jacques-Christophe Huguenet, June 2003.
- Center For Teaching Excellence, Teaching Seminar participant, Spring.
2002
- The Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals, Arts International for Ameropa Chamber Music Festival, Prague, Czech Republic, Grant Recipient, July.
2001
- Invited performance, National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors National Convention, February.
2000
- University of Kansas New Faculty Research Grant, FY2000, examined 18th-century prints at the Bibliothèque National in Paris, France.
1990
- The University of Iowa, E.F. Goldman Research Assistantship Award.
1989
- The University of Iowa, Music Activity Scholarship Award.
Selected Performances
Solo
- University of Michigan
- Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
- Ameropa Chamber Music Festival, Prague, Czech Republic
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- University of North Carolina, Greensboro (International Double Reed Society Conference)
- Missouri State University
- Ball State University (International Double Reed Society Conference)
- Missouri State University
- Ruel Joyce Recital Series, Johnson County Community College
- Society of Composer’s Inc., Region VI Conference
- Luther College, Decorah, IA Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA
- Northwest Missouri State University
- Emporia State University
- Kansas Touring Program, Herington, KS
- University of Kansas
- Pennsylvania State University
- Hawai’i International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Honolulu
- University of Costa Rica, San Jose
- University of Kansas Wind Ensemble
Concerto
- Rome Festival Orchestra
- Kansas City Chamber Orchestra
- Dubuque (IA) Symphony Orchestra
- St. Joseph Symphony
- University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra
- Lawrence Chamber Orchestra
- Luther College Orchestra
Chamber Music
- Ameropa Chamber Music Festival, Prague, Czech Republic
- Mozartissimo Chamber Music Festival, Madrid, Spain
- Kansas City Chamber Music Society
- Allegresse, flute, oboe, piano trio
- Kansas Woodwinds
- Kansas City Bachathon
- Quad-City Symphony Chamber Music Program
- New Ear
- The National Association of Wind and Percussion Instructors 50th Anniversary Symposium
- The Planel Trio, oboe, bassoon, piano
Orchestral Positions
- Kansas City Symphony Orchestra
- Kansas City Chamber Orchestra
- Kansas City Lyric Opera
- Kansas City Ballet Orchestra
- Lawrence Chamber Orchestra
- Dubuque Symphony Orchestra
- Dubuque Symphony Chamber Orchestra
- La Crosse Symphony Orchestra
- Dorian Opera Festival, Decorah, IA
- Knox-Galesburg Symphony Orchestra, Barcelona Tour, principal
- Rome Festival Orchestra, Rome, Italy
- Sarasota Opera Festival,
- Festival dei due Mondi, Spoleto, Italy
- Quad City Symphony Orchestra, Davenport, IA
- Center for New Music, Iowa City, IA
- American Waterways Wind Orchestra European Tour
- Orquesta Sinfònica de Maracaibo, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Selected Presentations
- Lecture/Recital, International Double Reed Society, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
- Hidden Gems: Music for Oboe and Continuo Bass by Nicolas Chédeville and Jacques-Christophe Huguenet
- Ameropa Chamber Music Festival, Prague, Czech Republic
- American Chamber Music – Birth and Influence a joint lecture presented
- Kansas Bandmaster’s Association 26th Annual Convention, Wichita, KS
- Troubleshooting Common Playing Problems on the Oboe
- Guest artist and lecturer, Iowa Wesleyan College
- Words and Music by and about Baroque Composers
Selected Publications
- Hidden Gems: French Baroque Works for Oboe in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, The Double Reed, vol 27, no. 1, 2004, pp 61-64.
- Ameropa Chamber Music Festival Builds Musical Bridges in Prague, Czech Republic, The Double Reed, vol. 25, no. 3, 2002, p 70
- Première Sonate from Sonates Champetres by Nicolas Chedeville (pending)
- Sixième Sonate from Sonates Amusantes by Nicolas Chedeville (pending)
- Première Sonate from Première Oeuvre de Sonates by Jacques-Christophe Huguenet, (pending)
- Cinquième Suitte by Jean-Francois Bouin, (pending)
Selected Professional Experience
Master Classes
- Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music
- University of Missouri-Kansas City, Conservatory of Music
- Midwest Double Reed Society Double Reed Day, University of Kansas
- Ameropa Chamber Music Festival, Prague, Czech Republic
- Mozartissimo Chamber Music Festival, Madrid, Spain
- University of Lincoln-Nebraska
- The University of Iowa Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA
- Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA
- Emporia State University
- Northwest Missouri State University
- University of Costa Rica
Adjudicating
- Music Teachers National Association West Central Division Competition
- Kansas High School Activities Solo and Ensemble Contest
- Kansas High School Activities Solo and Ensemble Contest
- Kansas State Solo and Ensemble Contest, Emporia State University
- Music Teachers National Association Contest, Lincoln, Nebraska
- Kansas Regional Music Festival
- Music Teachers National Association South Central Division Competition, Norman, Oklahoma
Professional Affiliations
- President, Midwest Double Reed Society
- Pi Kappa Lambda
- International Double Reed Society
- Music Educators National Conference
- Kansas Music Educators Association
- National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors
- American Federation of Musicians
Languages
- Fluent in Spanish, conversational knowledge of French, reading knowledge of German