Oboist from New York, New York, who attended Haverford College and The Curtis Institute of Music, from when he received a Bachelor’s degree in 1981.
From 1981 to 1984, he served as Principal Oboe for the Savannah Symphony and from 1984 to 1986 he was a member of the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. He appeared on their Christmas album, Gloria! Gloria!, along with The Philadelphia Singers, the chorus-in-residence of The Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1986, he joined The Philadelphia Orchestra and has been with them ever since.
He was the guest soloist of The Lenape Chamber Ensemble on 22nd July 1989 in a performance of “Quartet for Oboe and Strings” by Mozart at Delaware Valley College. In 1997, he appeared on the Temple University Wind Symphony’s self-titled album on the Albany label, tearing into Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Variations on a Theme of Glinka for Solo Oboe and Military Band”. He participated in Princeton University’s Oboe Blow-Out on 29th March 1998, teaching a master class entitled “Taming the Oboe’s Low Register”.
On 10th December 2000, he helped premiere the “Oboe Concerto” of Curt Cacioppo at Marshall Auditorium in Haverford, Pennsylvania. He recorded the concerto for an album called New Music for Oboe, which hit the shelves in 2002. On 20th November 2005, Curt and Jonathan were reunited in Medford Leas, New Jersey, for a recital of Bach, Hindemith and Schumann.
Jonathan returned to the studio and recorded Howard Hanson’s “Pastorale” for an all-Hanson affair on the Naxos label, which was released in 2006. In 2007, he performed on the compact disc, Instantes: Music by Manena Contreres.
Jonathan was the host of Woodwind Day on 22nd November 2009 at Rutgers University, where he teaches at the Mason Gross School of the Arts. He also sits on the Philadelphia Orchestra Master Class Faculty and lectures at Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance.
Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia recordings
Adeste Fidelis (Frederick Oakeley/John Francis Wade)
RCA 6559-2-RC (Gloria! Gloria!)
Soprano – Benita Valente
The Philadelphia Singers
Conductor – Michael Korn
Here’s The Philadelphia Orchestra performing “La Marseillaise”..
Sources:
- https://www.philorch.org/about/musicians/jonathan-blumenfeld#/
- http://www.haverford.edu/thearts/aya/
- http://www.curtis.edu/about-curtis/history/full-alumni-listing/view-by-instrument.html?&group=Oboe
- http://www.dramonline.org/albums/temple-university-wind-symphony/notes
- http://articles.mcall.com/1989-06-29/news/2683400_1_philadelphia-orchestra-flute-and-piano-trout-quintet
- http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Jonathan%20Blumenfeld&rh=n%3A85%2Ck%3AJonathan%20Blumenfeld&page=1
- http://www.norapost.com/blowoutprince.html
- http://www.capstonerecords.org/CPS-8706.html
- http://curtcacioppo.com/schedule
- http://www.tamino-klassikforum.at/thread.php?postid=296999
- http://lourette.net/kimmy/files/2007SOSFINALProgram.pdf
- http://www.masongross.rutgers.edu/music/documents/WoodwindDayflyerversion2.pdf
- https://luzernemusic.securem2.com/luzerne-music-center-faculty5.html
- http://mgsa.rutgers.edu/music/mus_f_dept_wood.php
- http://mgsatest.rutgers.edu/music/documents/WindBandFestival0910.pdf