Simon Emes is a British oboist who began his musical education at St Paul's Cathedral Choir School in London at age 13. He later studied at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning the Gold Medal in 1982. Emes has held principal oboe positions with several major orchestras, including the Royal Danish Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and currently the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. He has premiered numerous works and recorded extensively with various ensembles.

1. Simon Emes – Oboe
Born in London he began his musical education as a chorister at St Pauls
Cathedral Choir School. He began to play the oboe at the age of thirteen.
He later studied at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Anthony
Camden, David Theodore and Maurice Bourgue and won The Gold Medal
in 1982. His first engagement was with the Halle Orchestra as Assistant
principal at age 21. From 1982 - 86 he was Solo Oboe in The Royal Danish
Orchestra in Copenhagen and enjoyed working with the corps de ballet
and life in an opera house. In 1986 he was appointed by Mariss Jansons as
Co Principal Oboe with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Here he made
many recordings for EMI, Chandos and Naxos. During these twelve years
he formed the contemporary group Borealis and The Oslo Philharmonic
Wind Ensemble with whom he toured to Singapore in 1996. He was also
one of the founding musicians to play with the pop group Secret Garden
and recorded four albums with them in Ireland and Norway, White Stones,
Dawn of a New Century, Dreamcatcher and Once in a Red Moon. He has
played with them in Poland, Hong Kong and Singapore. In 1998 he left to
become Principal Oboe with The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra now in
its sixteenth season.
In Norway he premiered much Norwegian music for oboe including
Morten Gaathaugs Oboe Concerto with the Trondheim Symphony
Orchestra and Daniel Harding . In 2000 he made the premiere recording of
the Oboe Concerto by Stephen Frost at Abbey Road Studios in London with
the Chandos label. Concerto appearances have included Haydn with
Rudolph Barshai and OPO, Strauss with Paavo Berglund and OPO, Strauss
with Kees Baakels and Jac van Steen, Martinu with Claus Peter Flor and
Mozart with Naohisa Furusawa. As an invited Guest Principal Oboe he
has toured and recorded with many orchestras around the world including
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, WDR Koln, BBC Symphony Orchestra,
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Danish Radio
Symphony, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony
Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and Singapore Symphony
Orchestras. He has also worked with the orchestras of Li verpool, Glasgow,
Leeds, Gothenburg, Norrkoping, Trondheim, Qatar and Macau and played
in venues including Musikverein, Carnegie Hall, The Royal Albert Hall
Proms and Suntory Hall.
He has taught at the Summer Music Camp in Blonay, Switzerland and
performed by invitation at The International Double Reed Conventions in
Tallahassee and Melbourne. Recently he has enjoyed sponsorship by the
Oboe manufacturer Josef in Tokyo.