September 20, 2000 Contact: Jenna Soleo

The Juilliard Symphony, under the direction of Otto-Werner Mueller, Juilliard's Director of Orchestral Studies, performs on Monday, October 2 at 8 PM in the Juilliard Theater. The concert opens with Mozart's Overture to The Magic Flute, followed by his Concerto in C Major for Oboe and Orchestra, K. 314, featuring soloist Katherine Needleman; Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 ("Eroica") concludes the evening. Limited FREE tickets for this performance may be obtained at the Juilliard Box Office, Monday - Friday, 11 AM - 6 PM, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza. For more information please call (212) 769-7406.

Oboist Katherine Needleman is an active soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. Her solo engagements include appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Academy of Music, the Baltimore Symphony, and the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra among others. She has performed as guest principal oboist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principle oboist with the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Japan. Accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age sixteen, Ms. Needleman was a member of the Institute's orchestra for four years, including two years as principal oboist. In this capacity she spent a summer at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, where she was a featured performer. Ms. Needleman has performed under the baton of conductors such as Andre Previn, Yuri Temirkanov, Lucas Foss, Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

As a chamber musician Ms. Needleman has performed throughout the United States and internationally. A participant in the Marlboro Music Festival, she has also toured the east coast with Musicians from Marlboro performing in New York's Metropolitan Museum, and in concerts in Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, and Cincinnati. She has been selected to perform in Marlboro's fiftieth anniversary concerts this season, an engagement that includes performances in New York at Carnegie Hall and in Boston. A devotee of twentieth century music she has given performances of solo works by Lukas Foss and Ned Rorem. Last season she performed the Mozart Oboe Quartet and the premiere of a newly commissioned work by Ellen Harrison with the principal string players of the Cincinnati Symphony on the Linton Music Series. She also has premiered Chia-Yu Hsu's Sonata for Oboe and Piano. This season she performs Benno Blauth's Concertino for Oboe and Strings with the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Needleman received her Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute, where she studied with Richard Woodhams, principal oboist for the Philadelphia Orchestra. Previous teachers include Rudolph Vrbsky, principal oboist of the National Symphony and Joseph Turner, principal oboist of the Baltimore Symphony. In 1997 she was awarded second prize in the Fernand Gillet International Competition. The recipient of the Satterthwaite Scholarship at Juilliard, Ms Needleman currently is pursuing her Masters of Music degree at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Elaine Douvas.

Born in Bensheim, Germany in 1926, conductor and teacher Otto-Werner Mueller has helped shape the orchestral training programs of distinguished musical institutions in the United States and Canada. After studying conducting, composition, piano, trumpet, and viola in Frankfurt, Mr. Mueller became director of the chamber music department for Radio Stuttgart at the age of nineteen, and was founder and conductor of the celebrated Radio Stuttgart Chamber Choir. Two years later, he served as conductor of opera and operetta for the Heidelberg Theater. In Heidelberg, he founded the orchestra for dependents of United States military forces stationed there. Emigrating in 1951 to Canada, Mr. Mueller worked extensively for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as conductor of opera, ballet, and symphonic presentations, and in 1958 became teacher and conductor at the Montreal Conservatory. He later served as director of the Victoria Symphony, and was founder and dean of the Victoria School of Music.

Mr. Mueller was a guest professor at the Moscow State Conservatory in 1963, and toured the Republics of the former Soviet Union in 1968 and 1970, conducting the Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Riga symphonies. He has conducted throughout North America and was a guest conductor at the Scottish National Orchestra and the Krakow Philharmonic.

Mr. Mueller has trained the conductors of many American orchestras, teaching at the Yale University School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison, American Choral Foundation's Summer Institute, Aspen Music Festival, American Symphony Orchestra League's conducting seminars, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. He is currently a member of the faculty at The Curtis Institute of Music and Director of Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School.