“The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s newly hired principal oboist Alexander Kinmonth has a lot to do before he takes his place next fall at the center of the wind section on stage at Orchestra Hall,” writes Mark Stryker in Friday’s (4/10) Detroit Free Press. “He has to graduate from college. Kinmonth, 21, is a senior at the Juilliard School in New York and scheduled to graduate in May.” Kinmonth replaces Don Baker, who retired last year. “Since the start of [Leonard] Slatkin’s tenure in 2008, he has appointed 10 current principal players and 27 total musicians, about a third of the ensemble…. Kinmonth, whose primary teacher at Juilliard is Nathan Hughes, principal oboe of the Metropolitan Opera … took up the violin at 5 and added the oboe to his repertoire at age 9…. Outside of music, Kinmonth participated in the 2010 National Junior Olympics for fencing, and he also enjoys soccer, pole vaulting and downhill mountain biking…. The DSO has been on a hot streak…. ‘I think morale is very high,’ said [Principal Flute David] Buck…. ‘The group has come together and really worked to move past what happened [during the six-month strike in 2010-11] as a unified orchestra.’ ”
Posted April 13, 2015
