Biography
Tim Hurtz, associate professor of oboe, joined the Penn State faculty in 1993 and is a member of the Pennsylvania Quintet. He was previously a faculty member at Illinois State University from 1973 to 1993, teaching the oboe and performing with the Sonneries Woodwind Quintet. Hurtz has performed with the Chicago Symphony; Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; the San Francisco Opera and Ballet; Joffery, Bolshoi, and American Ballet Theater orchestras; the Santa Fe Opera; and Mannheim Steamroller; and has given recitals and clinics across the United States, Europe, Canada, and Japan. His teachers included William Criss, Robert Bloom, and Ray Still.From 1978 to 1981, he was principal oboe with the National Opera of Mexico City and taught at the Mexican National Conservatory of Music. Hurtz was principal oboe with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, and the Peoria Symphony Orchestra from 1983 to 1993. In Japan, he was a frequent performer at the Moon Beach Festival in Okinawa.The International Double Reed Society has hosted him in concert three times.He currently serves as principal oboe and has been a soloist with the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra and Music at Penn's Woods. Hurtz has traveled extensively giving clinics for Fox Products. From 2006 to 2009, Hurtz was a soloist and chamber musician with Ireland's "Summer Music on the Shannon" international music festival.