Theresa Delaplain & Tomoko Kashiwagi - Souvenirs - Music for Oboe and Piano (2019)

Many of us experience the allure of foreign culture, and once we have visited a foreign place, it’s natural to want some memento of the trip. The music here is dedicated to my father, who loved to travel and often brought back interesting souvenirs, including music, for his children. In this collection of music written for oboe and piano, composers from five countries give us their souvenirs, representing a diverse array of cultures, styles and moods.

Theresa Delaplain maintains as active career as an oboist and pedagogue, performing as a soloist, chamber musician and in the orchestral setting. She has performed as soloist with the Fort Smith Symphony, North Arkansas Symphony and Arkansas Philharmonic, and with the University of Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Wind Symphony and Chamber Orchestra. She currently serves as Principal Oboist for the Fort Smith Symphony, the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas and Arkansas Philharmonic. An avid chamber musician, Delaplain is oboist of the Lyrique Quintette, an ensemble on the Arkansas Arts Council’s “Arts on Tour” roster. The quintet has toured throughout the United States, and in Canada, Spain, Germany and Thailand, giving formal concerts, school concerts, master classes, clinics and workshops. Delaplain has appeared at numerous International Double Reed Society conferences, and was a guest recitalist at the Southwest Contemporary Music Festival and Conference. She has also performed at both national and regional conferences of the College Music Society. Delaplain has commissioned and premiered several new oboe works, and has taught at the Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Arts Camp, Midwest Double Reed Camp and Saarburg International Music Festival and School in Germany. A highly regarded clinician and adjudicator, she has appeared at the Mid-South Double Reed Society Conference, Valdosta State University Double Reed Day, East Carolina Oboe Day and the Arkansas All-State Music Convention. She has also written a popular oboe reed-making book, My Kingdom for a Reed! and is the co-host of Something to Crow About!, a YouTube channel devoted to oboe reed-making. Delaplain teaches oboe and music theory at the University of Arkansas. Her formal education includes study at Macalester College with Rachel Brudnoy and Richard Killmer; a Bachelor of Music in Oboe Performance from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Arno Mariotti; a Master of Music in Oboe Performance from Bowling Green State University, where she studied with John Bentley; and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Oboe Performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where she studied with Sara Bloom and attended master classes with Robert Bloom.

Pianist Tomoko Kashiwagi is fluent in a wide range of repertoire, both as a performer and as an educator. From an early age, Kashiwagi realized the importance to a musician of chamber music and ensemble playing and has built a career upon that spirit of collaboration. She has performed prestigious venues across the globe, including the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Guildhall School in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Central Conservatory in Beijing. Kashiwagi is frequently invited to be official pianist for conferences, competitions and festivals throughout the United States and abroad. She served as staff pianist for the Meadowmount School of Music in New York for six summers, official pianist for Menuhin International Violin Competition in 2014 and more recently accompanied at the Interlochen Oboe Intensive Institute. Kashiwagi joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 2012, and is currently Assistant Professor of Piano and Collaborative Piano there, holding the Emily J. McAllister Endowed Chair. She earned Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees as well as a Performer Diploma in Piano Performance at Indiana University, where she studied with Professors Shigeo and Reiko Neriki. She is the first recipient of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Collaborative Piano from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied with Professor Anne Epperson.