Three intrepid musicians, Libby Van Cleve, Kirsten Lipkens, and Neely Bruce, gave themselves the bold and audacious task of adapting Mozart’s great Sinfonia Concertante, originally written for violin, viola, and orchestra, to their instruments: oboe, English horn, and piano.  The results were so convincing; the artistic collaboration so rich, and the friendship so joyful, that the trio formed an ensemble, Oboedacious, dedicated to the performance of this transcription and other chamber pieces for their instrumentation.  Oboedacious performs concerts with their unique repertoire, drawn from the 17th century to the present.

See video menu for excerpts of a recent Mozart performance.

Note: Our next concert will be on Sunday, October 13, 2024, at 4 PM, at The Church of the Holy Trinity, 381 Main St, Middletown, CT 06457.

Described as "expert" by the Washington Post, "dazzling" by the San Francisco Chronicle, and "absolutely exquisite” by Paris Transatlantic, Libby Van Cleve's most extreme moniker was from the Hartford Courant which dubbed her "the double reed queen of the new music world."  Van Cleve is recognized as one of the foremost interpreters of chamber and contemporary music for the oboe. She is the author of Oboe Unbound, a book on contemporary oboe techniques published by Rowman and Littlefield, and co-author of the award-winning book/CD publication, Composers' Voices from Ives to Ellington, Yale University Press, and she is also the editor of Six Suites, oboe performance editions of Bach’s cello suites, published by T.D. Ellis Music Publishing. 

For over 30 years, oboist Kirsten Lipkens has performed, taught and created educational programs to inspire audiences of all ages to appreciate and explore the art of music. She studied oboe performance at Eastman School of Music and Yale School of Music. Her teachers include Alicia Chapman, Neil Boyer, Richard Killmer, Ronald Roseman, and Peggy Pearson. Kirsten performed in Japan, Europe, and the United States, with several appearances in Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center. She has played with symphony orchestras in Charlottesville(VA), Richmond(VA), Virginia, West Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Springfield(MA), Glens Falls(NY), Albany(NY), and Rhode Island. An avid chamber music artist, she founded a chamber music festival in the 1990’s. As a member of The Battell Woodwind Quintet, she participated in a residency in Dodge City, KS sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and was a finalist in the Fischoff Competition. Most recently, as a member of the Deerfield Quintet, she enjoyed performing throughout Western Massachusetts.Kirsten taught at the University of Virginia, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, UMass Amherst and Western New England University. She is currently teaching at Springfield College and Amherst College and is the principal oboe of NERO (New England Repertory Orchestra).

Neely Bruce is a composer, performer and scholar of American music, on faculty at Wesleyan University. American Record Guide writes, "Neely Bruce's importance in contemporary American music has never been sufficiently recognized. Bruce's art ranges from the most difficult and virtuosic contemporary writing to simple tonality, and moves from one idiom to the other effortlessly and convincingly--something hardly anyone can do without sounding forced. Bruce seems equally at home in every style he uses." As a pianist, he has specialized in the music of American composers. Important premieres include The Time Curve Preludes of William Duckworth and HPSCHD by John Cage and Lejaren Hiller. He is the only pianist to have played all of accompaniments of the solo vocal music of Charles Ives. He loves the oboe, the English horn, and all other double reed instruments.