Tim Hurtz

Tim Hurtz has been an Associate Professor of Oboe at Penn State University since 1993. He is also the principal oboe for the Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra and a member of the Pennsylvania Woodwind Quintet. Before that, he was on the faculty of Illinois State University for 17 years.

Tim was born in Los Angeles. He began as a clarinet player. There was a lot of competition within the clarinet section in his junior high, so he switched to the oboe upon recommendation from his director.

Tim has a Bachelors Degree in Oboe Performance from the University of Southern California. His primary teachers were William Criss, Donald Muggeridge, Robert Bloom, and Ray Still.

Tim has performed with many different groups including the Sonneries Woodwind Quintet, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Opera and Ballet, Joffrey, Bolshoi, and American Ballet Theater Orchestras, Santa Fe Opera, and Mannheim Steamroller. He has given recitals and clinics in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Japan. He has been a semi-finalist in the MacMahon International Wind Competition and the Southeast Iowa Wind Competition. Tim has given many clinics for Fox Products.

Tim has been the principal oboe for the National Opera of Mexico City and has also taught at the Mexican National Conservatory of Music. He has also been the principal oboe for the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, and the Peoria Symphony Orchestra.

In his free time, Tim enjoys fishing, working on his house, and helping to raise his two and a half year old child. His favorite composers include Mozart and Bach. If you want to become a successful oboist, Tim thinks that you should listen to classical music all the time to make it become a part of you. If you don't listen to it, you won't know what you should sound like.