Biography
Kathryn Gleasman Pisaro, is active as an oboist and a music historian.
As a music historian, she received her Masters and PhD degrees in musicology at Northwestern University, with a dissertation on experimental music in Britain in the 1960s. She regularly presents papers at national and international conferences, including the Third Biennial International Conference on 20th century music in Nottingham, England, the 17th Congress of the International Musicological Society in Leuven, Belgium, the Experience Project Pop Music Conference in Seattle, Washington, and the Canadian University Music Society Annual Conference in Lennoxville, Quebec. Articles and entries can be found in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Musicworks, the art journal Seitan, Crosscurrents and Counterpoints, and the International Double Reed Society Journal.
As an oboist, she received degrees from De Paul University and California Institute of the Arts. She has performed with a wide variety of artists and ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Fresno Philharmonic, the Burbank Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Symphony, and the Downey Symphony Orchestra. She has accompanied such well known performers as Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavoretti, the Moody Blues, Ray Charles, Harry Belefonte, Garth Brooks, Marvin Hamlisch, and Henry Mancini. She has also played in touring Broadway productions, including A Little Night Music, Aspects of Love, Beauty and the Beast, Cabaret, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Phantom of the Opera, South Pacific, and Showboat. She has recorded solo contemporary music for the oboe for Edition Wandelweiser Records, jazz with the City Lights Orchestra and the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, and rock music with the band Poi Dog Pondering. She has toured Europe six times as a new music soloist, performing in England, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Greece. Her concerto performances with the Valley Symphony Orchestra of Mozart’s Concerto in C major, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #2, and Charles Fernandez’ Oboe Concerto, Sarah Wallin Huff’s Elegy with the Santa Clarita Philharmonic, and, Bach’s Concerto for Oboe d’amore, Gabriel’s Oboe, and Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C minor on the American Victory Orchestra’s concerts for the Daniel Pearl World Music Days.
She is currently on the faculty at California Institute of the Arts as well as CSUN. She has previously served on the faculty at Northwestern University, DePaul University, Ventura College, and Los Angeles Valley College. She coaches wind players at the Kadima Conservatory of Music, and has a private piano studio.