Oboe
BM St. Olaf College
MM University of Michigan
COURSES TAUGHT:
Applied Oboe
CONTACT INFORMATION:
773-325-4364
About
Ms. Dirks has two Bachelors degrees from St. Olaf College and two Masters Degrees from the University of Michigan: one of each in oboe performance and piano performance. In 1999, Ms. Dirks moved to Chicago and began study with oboist Alex Klein. Since that time, she has enjoyed collaborating with Mr. Klein in numerous performances and projects.
Ms. Dirks is the newest member of one of the premier wind quintets of America, the Prairie Winds Quintet. Renowned as pedagogues as well as performers, the quintet is on the woodwind faculty of the Madeline Island Music Festival, and has given numerous master classes, lectures, and coachings, including a weekend in residence at the 2003 Chamber Music of America conference.
An avid lover of chamber music, her chamber performances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians have been praised as "polished, technically superb and beautifully balanced." Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as an "accomplished and virtuosic" performer, she is a two-time winner of the Musical Merit Foundation Scholarship Competition. Ms. Dirks has performed in concert on both the piano and the oboe, in recitals, chamber music concerts, and with orchestras across the United States and at international venues in China, Canada and the Caribbean. She started playing in the oboe section of the Chicago Symphony for the 2004-5 season, and has had a continuous presence on stage over the subsequent seasons, where she enjoys the opportunity to perform regularly with her mother, Chicago Symphony violist Karen Dirks.