Oboe Fusion

Marilyn Coyne, oboe, English horn, vocals  - Marilyn Coyne divides her time between performing on both coasts of the United States.   A native of California , Marilyn has been a member of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra for many years. While living in San Francisco during the ballet season Marilyn also performs with the San Francisco Symphony and many groups in the Bay Area. During the rest of the year Marilyn lives and freelances in New York City playing for groups such as American Ballet Theatre, American Symphony, the New York Pops, the New York Symphonic Ensemble, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, and the New Jersey Symphony. She has also played with many chamber music groups including the Blue Door, Apple Hill and at the Moab and Grand Canyon Music Festivals.  Marilyn studied with Ray Still and Marc Lifschey and received her BM from Northwestern University.  She also attended the Juilliard School of Music where she was a full scholarship student in the performance degree program.

Kathy Halvorson, oboe and English horn - Kathy Halvorson is one of the most versatile oboists working today, as both an improviser and accomplished classical oboist. She was principal oboe with the Symphony Orchestra de Mineria in Mexico City, and formerly oboist for the Broadway Musicals Illinoise and On the Town in New York City and the 2017 North American tour of Les Misérables. She has performed often with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the American Symphony and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Argento Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, as well as principal oboe with the Westchester Philharmonic and the Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic. She has been the oboist with Sylvan Winds since 2008, and recorded two CDs with the group. Kathy has also recorded 12 CDs as principal oboe with the Toronto Chamber Orchestra under Kevin Mallon and Nicolas McGegan. Her arrangements and improvisations on pop, jazz, folk and world music can be heard on the CDs Unraveled and Palette with her oboe trio Threeds, as well as the 2023 release of “A Strange Day In June” by the group Folklorkestra, of which she is a member. Kathy studied at the New England Conservatory, at Rutgers University with Jonathan Blumenfeld, and at the Royal Conservatory in the Netherlands with Bart Schneemann. In Holland she performed regularly with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Calefax Reed Quintet, the Netherlands Balletorkest, and many others. She has also worked with the Mingus Epitaph, jazz bassoonist Michael Rabinowitz, and Bjork.

Thomas Gallant, oboe - Award-winning artist Thomas Gallant is one of the world’s few virtuoso solo and chamber music performers on the oboe.   Mr. Gallant has been praised by the New Yorker magazine as “a player who unites technical mastery with intentness, charm and wit.”  He is a First Prize Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International New York Competition.  His performances have taken him to Avery Fisher Hall and the Frick Collection in New York City, to Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, to the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and to the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center and Cleveland Chamber Music Society.  He has appeared as guest soloist with the Kronos Quartet at the Ravinia Festival and has collaborated with flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, with Cuarteto Casals, the Colorado, Calder and Lark Quartets, Cuarteto Latinoamericano and with the Adaskin String Trio.  Recent and upcoming performances include a concert of solo and chamber music works for the oboe at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and tours across the United States as soloist with Camerata Bariloche from Argentina performing concerti by J. S. Bach, Bellini and Vaughan-Williams.  Mr. Gallant is the Artistic Director of Frisson and a member of Ensemble Schumann. 

Peter Lurye, pianist and music director -  Songwriter/composer/pianist Peter Lurye is a man of little hair but many hats. Nominated for two Emmys, he was the composer/lyricist/producer for such iconic children's TV theme songs as The Magic School Bus, My Life As A Teenage Robot, Bear In The Big Blue House, Gullah Gullah Island, Stanley, Out Of the Box, Jungle Junction, and Eureeka's Castle. His songs have been recorded by Little Richard, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dolly Parton, Nathan Lane, Baha Men, Chita Rivera, Jason Alexander, Lily Tomlin, Luther Vandross, Wynonna, Alan Cumming, Jewel, Mel Brooks, Placido Domingo, and many others. His classical chamber music has been performed by the Frisson Ensemble, the Sherman Chamber Ensemble, the David Oei Classical Salon, Blackledge Flutes, and Flutissimo!, while his choral work “Remember” was premiered by the UNC Chamber Singers at Chapel Hill. An album of his songs for “MacGyver The Musical,” which premiered to rave reviews at Stages Houston in 2022, can be found on Spotify. Earlier in Peter's career he was a pianist and conductor at the Nuremberg Opera, and spent five seasons touring with the late Professor Peter Schickele as a pianist/flutist/quasi-singer in the Professor’s chamber show, The Intimate P.D.Q. Bach.