Curtis Institute taps orchestras of Philly and Baltimore for new faculty
Oboists Katherine Needleman and Philippe Tondre take new spots in the fall.
The Curtis Institute of Music will replace one of its star professors with two new faculty members.
Philippe Tondre and Katherine Needleman, principal oboists in the orchestras of Philadelphia and Baltimore, respectively, will take over Curtis’ oboe studio this fall, the school announced Thursday.
They succeed Richard Woodhams, the one-time Philadelphia Orchestra principal oboist who was let go by Curtis before the start of the current school year.
The appointment marks a significant departure from tradition for the Rittenhouse Square music conservatory. Tondre and Needleman represent two different schools of playing. Tondre has a European sound, while Needleman, who studied with Woodhams at Curtis, is part of an American pedagogical lineage at the school going back to Woodhams’ teacher, John de Lancie, and de Lancie’s teacher, Marcel Tabuteau.
Giving students access to both philosophies was part of the thinking behind the joint appointment, as was maintaining Curtis’ historic connection with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
“It’s important on a consistent basis for students to hear their teachers perform,” said Curtis dean Paul Bryan about Tondre’s appointment. “But also the Curtis school of oboe playing, which a lot of people would consider the American school, is a really important tradition and something we feel needs to be continued,” he said of Needleman. “So having an alum appointed who is an advocate of new music and under-represented composers and is at the forefront of the repertoire is really important for us, too.”
All of Curtis’ oboe students — there are typically five — will study with both faculty members; the school has been moving toward a system in which all students train with more than one major teacher.
Oboe lessons this year have been taught by guests.
Needleman joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2003 and since 2005 has taught at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. She has played the premieres of several new works for her instrument, as well as the American premiere of the Ruth Gipps Oboe Concerto.
The French-born Tondre joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2020 and continues to play principal oboe with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He also teaches at the Hochschule für Musik Saar in Germany and Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.
Curtis has declined to specify a reason for severing its ties with Woodhams, a graduate of the school who taught there for three and a half decades.
“Curtis has decided to move in a different direction,” wrote Kimberly I. Gould, Curtis’ Title IX coordinator and director of human resources and equal opportunity, in an email to Woodhams last summer.