Hilary Philipp - Ralph Gomberg Oboe Merit Award - 2008 Originally from upstste New York, Hilary Philipp moved to Cambridge, MA in 2000 to attend the Longy School of Music where she studied oboe with Wayne Rapier for four years. After completing her undergraduate studies, Hilary accepted a graduate assistantship at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to study with Fred Cohen. While at UMass, she performed as soloist with the Universtiy Orchestra twice, playing concertos by Marcello and Vaughan-Williams. Hilary has performed with such Boston area groups as the Boston Civic, Brockton, Dartmouth, and Newton Symphonies, the Binghampton Philharmonic, and the Hampshire Choral Society. This past summer, Hilary was awarded a fellowship to atttend the Festival International de Inverno i Campos do Jordão, Brazil. In 2007 Hilary received her Masters degree in oboe performance and is currently seeking a position in a professional orchestra while continuing to study with Prof. Cohen and her first oboe teacher,Cheryl Bishkoff, principal oboist of the Rhode Island Philharmonic.
Sachiko Murata - Ralph Gomberg Oboe Merit Award - 2007 Sachiko Murata studied the oboe in middle school under the instruction of her father, a former member of the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra. She took first prize at the Hakodate City Music Competition in 1995. She continued her studies with Yoko Kojima, a member of Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) Symphony Orchestra, for three years at the Tokyo College of Music, before transferring to the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she studies with Keisuke Wakao of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A first prize winner of the 2005 Longy Concerto Competition, she performed Mozart's Oboe Concerto K.314 with the Longy Chamber Orchestra.
Kristina Goettler - Ralph Gomberg Oboe Merit Award - 2006 A native of SanDiego, California, Kristina Lynn Goettler began studying the oboe at the age of 10. In 2000 she made her solo debut with the Grossmont Symphony Orchestra, and in 2001appeared with the SanDiego Symphony. Kristina previously served as principal oboe of the Mansfield Symphony and has performed with New World Symphony. She has also attended such various summer festivals as Domain Forget, Music Academy of the West, Sarasota, and National Repertory Orchestra. Kristina earned the degree Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with James Caldwell. She is currently working on her Master of Music degree and is studying at New England Conservatory of Music with John Ferrillo, principal oboe of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.