Michele Fiala is the Professor of Oboe at Ohio University, where she received the 2016 Presidential Research Scholar Award. Dr. Fiala has performed throughout the United States, in Japan, Italy, England, Germany, France and Canada. Her two CDs of contemporary oboe music, The Light Wraps You and Overheard, are on the MSR Classics label. Fiala performs and records with the Athenia Chamber Ensemble, a faculty ensemble at Ohio University that seeks to develop new and interactive ways of connecting audiences to classical chamber music. Their premiere recording, Brush Strokes, is on Navona Records and has received airplay across the US. Dr. Fiala also appears on recordings on Naxos, Centaur and Equilibrium Records.
Dr. Fiala’s recordings have received critical acclaim. Fanfare Magazine called her playing “light, fluent, and wonderfully flexible” and BBC Music Magazine wrote of her “impressive command.” Daniel Coombs of Audiophile Audition spoke of Fiala’s “beautiful tone and a very expressive range of color and ample, fluid technique” and Carla Rees in MusicWeb International wrote “The oboe sound is rich and warm…the playing is excellent, and the musical ideas are communicated well.” Jeanne Belfy, in The Double Reed, called her first CD “a classy affair from start to finish” and said, “…the interpretations are elegant…Fiala’s tone is light, mellow and flexible.”
In addition to her solo and chamber performances and recordings, Dr. Fiala has performed with numerous orchestras, notably the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony and West Virginia Symphony.
Dr. Fiala’s first book, A Performer’s Guide to Nineteenth-Century Italian Oboe Music, is published by Trevco Music Publishing (FL). Her second book, Great Oboists on Music and Musicianship, is coauthored with Martin Schuring and will be released by Oxford University Press in November of 2020. Dr. Fiala has written articles for The Double Reed and I Fiati (Italy) and has edited music for Spartan Press (UK). She was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Double Reed Society, serving four years as Secretary and four years prior to that as the Chair of the Young Artist Oboe Competition. Dr. Fiala received her master’s and doctorate from Arizona State University where she studied with Martin Schuring.
Dr. Fiala’s recordings have received critical acclaim. Fanfare Magazine called her playing “light, fluent, and wonderfully flexible” and BBC Music Magazine wrote of her “impressive command.” Daniel Coombs of Audiophile Audition spoke of Fiala’s “beautiful tone and a very expressive range of color and ample, fluid technique” and Carla Rees in MusicWeb International wrote “The oboe sound is rich and warm…the playing is excellent, and the musical ideas are communicated well.” Jeanne Belfy, in The Double Reed, called her first CD “a classy affair from start to finish” and said, “…the interpretations are elegant…Fiala’s tone is light, mellow and flexible.”
In addition to her solo and chamber performances and recordings, Dr. Fiala has performed with numerous orchestras, notably the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony and West Virginia Symphony.
Dr. Fiala’s first book, A Performer’s Guide to Nineteenth-Century Italian Oboe Music, is published by Trevco Music Publishing (FL). Her second book, Great Oboists on Music and Musicianship, is coauthored with Martin Schuring and will be released by Oxford University Press in November of 2020. Dr. Fiala has written articles for The Double Reed and I Fiati (Italy) and has edited music for Spartan Press (UK). She was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Double Reed Society, serving four years as Secretary and four years prior to that as the Chair of the Young Artist Oboe Competition. Dr. Fiala received her master’s and doctorate from Arizona State University where she studied with Martin Schuring.
