Oboe family
Who invented the oboe!
Early Study and Career
Chicago Symphony
Recordings
Teaching and Family
Retirement
Ray Still, the first oboist of the Chicago Symphony for forty years, enjoyed a long and distinguished career in orchestral, solo, and chamber music.
Oboe range
He played under almost all the major conductors of the last half of the 20th century and recorded much of the oboe solo repertoire with such artists as the Fine Arts Quartet, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell, and Kathleen Battle.
The many students he taught in graduate and undergraduate programs and international clinics and master classes now staff symphonies and universities around the world. After his retirement, he toured in Europe, Ireland, Canada, and Japan and taught at Northwestern and the University of Maryland. His distinctive tone and musical style have influenced and inspired musicians throughout the world.
Born in Elwood, Indiana in , Ray Still moved with his family to a farm in Iowa where he lived till the age of 11