Ruth Bolister, Oboe

Biography  

Ruth plays with total control and virtuosity,.. great warmth and affection.

Double Reed News Spring 2004.

Ruth first came to prominence as an oboist in 1990, when she was runner-up in the Woodwind Final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. She followed this in 1993 by taking first prize in the Isle of Wight International Oboe Competition and has since given solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square , in a tour of British music colleges, at the Fairfield Hall and the British Embassy in Paris in a concert for Diana, Princess of Wales. Ruth has performed concertos with the BBC Concert Orchestra on ‘Friday Night is Music Night’ on BBC Radio 2, the Philharmonia Orchestra in a Martin Musical Scholarship Award Winners concert, the Birmingham Ensemble, the National Youth Orchestra and the Royal Academy of Music Sinfonia. A keen advocate of new music, Ruth has given the premières of Joseph Horovitz’s Oboe Concerto and Rhian Samuel's Scenes from an Aria.  

In 1996, Ruth was appointed Principal Oboe of the Orchestra of English National Opera. She is also active as a freelance orchestral musician, and has worked as Guest Principal Oboe with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, CBSO, English Chamber Orchestra, Hallé, London Mozart Players, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and in West End Productions including Les Miserables and The King and I. Ruth has performed in three Glyndebourne seasons as Guest Principal Oboe with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

 No stranger to TV broadcasts, Ruth was part of the opening of the Millenium Dome performing with the ENO Orchestra, the Three Tenors concert in Barcelona with the Philharmonia under James Levine, and Channel 4's Operatunity in the final performance of Rigoletto with the ENO.

 CD recordings include English Oboe Concertos with the Elgar Chamber Orchestra for ASV, The Watermill for Hyperion - part of British Light Music Classics which reached Number One in the Classic FM Chart, Adiemus III for Virgin with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, a Virgin Classics recording with the CBSO under Sir Simon Rattle and music for TV including Canterbury Tales on BBC1, The Fast Show and Love in a Cold Climate.

 Ruth lives in North London with her husband, two young children and a large greyhound called Paddy. She enjoys keeping fit, and in 2000 ran the London Marathon in 4 hours 16 minutes.

ruthbolister@blueyonder.co.uk.