Wakao, Keisuke

Oboist from Tokyo, Japan, who attended the Manhattan School of Music, from whence he graduated in 1987, and supplemented his education at Tanglewood Music Center. His teachers included Eric Barr, Peter Bowman, Alfred Genovese, Ralph Gomberg, John Mack, and Joseph Robinson.

In 1990, he became principal oboe of the Boston Pops and assistant principal oboe of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Other groups with whom he has worked include the Japan Relief Orchestra, the Longy Conservatory Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, the New World Symphony, the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

Recordings on which he appears comprise: Abendlied with Christoph Eschenbach; America, American Visions, The Celtic Album and Holiday Pops by the Boston Pops; Carl Reinecke: From the Cradle to the Grave; Keisuke Wakao Plays John Williams; and, Keisuke Wakao Plays Mozart/Bach/Britten/Prokofiev.

On 25^th May 2011, he gave the world premiere of John Williams’ “Oboe Concerto” with the Boston Pops Orchestra at Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.

In the field of music education, he has taught at the Keisuke Wakao Oboe Camp, the Manhattan School of Music, and the New York Summer Music Festival. He also organized benefit concerts for earthquake and tsunami victims in his native Japan in 2011.

He was diagnosed with throat cancer in the late 2010s but recovered and continues to play for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Sources:

Wakao, Keisuke

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