Elaine Douvas

Elaine Douvas is an institution in the oboe world, having served more than forty years as principal oboe of the Metropolitan Opera and as oboe instructor at The Juilliard School, where she is chair of its Woodwind Department. She also teaches at Mannes School of Music, Bard College Conservatory, the Hidden Valley Seminars in California; in the past at Le Domaine Forget in Quebec, twenty years of intensive one-week seminars at Interlochen, and master classes in Beijing, Shanghai, and London. Former students hold positions in orchestras and universities around the world. Her career highlights include the Strauss Oboe Concerto with the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, James Levine conducting, and in 2017 she served as Jury Chairman for the ARD Munich International Oboe Competition. Her CDs comprise a solo recital for Boston Records, Pleasure is the Law by her quartet of the same name, and Oboe Divas on the Oboe Classics label. Douvas trained at Cleveland Institute of Music and the Interlochen Arts Academy. Her first job was principal oboe of the Atlanta Symphony at the age of twenty-one. For many years she has devoted her spare time to figure skating and has passed eleven USFSA tests.