Elaine Douvas

Elaine Douvas has been principal oboe of the Metropolitan Opera for more than 40 years and an oboe instructor at Juilliard since 1982, she’s also chair of the woodwind department. In the summer, she is a long-time artist/faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School. Douvas has given intensive one-week seminars at Le Domaine Forget in Quebec, Interlochen (Michigan) Arts Camp, and the Hidden Valley Music Seminars in California. She has given master classes in Beijing, Shanghai, and London, and in 2017, she served as jury chairman for the ARD Munich International Oboe Competition. Her former students hold positions in orchestras and universities around the world. Her career highlights include the Strauss Oboe Concerto with the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, James Levine conducting. Her CDs include a solo recital for Boston Records, Pleasure Is the Law by her quartet of the same name, and Oboe Divas on the Oboe Classics label. Douvas trained at Cleveland Institute of Music and the Interlochen Arts Academy. Her first job was principal oboe of the Atlanta Symphony at the age of 21. She played several summer seasons as guest principal in the New York Philharmonic, and participated in the Grand Teton, Marlboro, Angel Fire, and Bravo Colorado festivals. For the past 25 years, she has devoted her spare time to figure skating, and she has passed 11 U.S. Figure Skating tests.