About (Bio):
Oboist Franck Avril has had a long and illustrious career of over 50 years, as a soloist, chamber musician, residency artist, educator and arts administrator. First recognized as a winner of Concert Artists Guild, he garnered a Bronze Medal at the 1977 Geneva International Competition and became the first oboist to ever win Young Concert Artists’ International Auditions. Soon thereafter, he became the first oboist ever chosen by Affiliate Artists as part of its renown Informance-residency program, presenting over 50 solo recitals across the United States, with additional appearances in Europe. The ensuing year, he joined the elite instrumental roster of Dispeker Artists.
His many NYC recital appearances include those at Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street “Y”, Merkin Hall, Town Hall, and at the Guggenheim Museum for its Kandinsky exhibit. Additional recitals include those at Boston’s Gardner Museum, the Norton Gallery of Art in West Palm Beach (FL), Urbana-Champaign's Krannert Center, as well as a solo recital at the IDRS 25th-Anniversary Conference in Tallahassee (FL) which featured his own transcription of Manuel de Falla’s Chansons Populaires for oboe d’amore/English Horn and piano. Concerto appearances have taken him to major halls in NYC, as well as those of Atlanta, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Seattle, Flagstaff, Green Bay, Newport (RI), Westmoreland (PA), and the Brevard (NC) Music Center.
Franck’s numerous solo residencies have been underwritten by the foundations of Exxon, Citibank, Merrill-Lynch, Bristol-Meyers, John Deere, G.E., Alcoa, and the NEA, with community-enriching projects in collaboration with the Southeast Alaska School District, the Lower Manhattan Settlement projects, Buffalo’s Inner City Schools, Seattle’s Alternative Schools, and the Quad Cities (Iowa-Illinois). Additionally, he has been an in-residence visiting artist at major campuses including those of Ohio State, Iowa State, William & Mary, Montana State, San Diego State, Arizona State, and Stanford University.
Mr. Avril’s chamber music collaborations include those with the Vermeer, Rowe, Colorado and Philadelphia string quartets, the Garth Newel (VA) Chamber Players, the San Francisco Chamber Soloists, New-York's Harmonie Wind Ensemble, and the Sylvan, Aspen, and Soni Ventorum wind quintets; as well as with his acclaimed mixed-chamber group Die Serenade (soprano, oboe, viola, cello, and keyboard). He has appeared at the festivals of Sceaux (France), Mostly Mozart, Summerfest, Cape and Islands, Marzena's Pacific Rim Festival of Contemporary Music, Pepsico's Summerfare, the Cleveland Museum of Art Chamber Series, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and Chamber Music Northwest. A frequent collaborator, he has also appeared in joint recitals and chamber music with such performers as violinists Stephanie Chase, Daniel Phillips and Sidney Harth; violists Marcus Thompson and Toby Appel; cellist Ronald Thomas; pianists Christopher O’Riley, Samuel Sanders, David Golub and Margo Garrett; sopranos Anne Monoyos, Lucy Shelton and Beverly Hoch; clarinetist David Shifrin; flutists Linda Chesis and Gary Shocker; and fellow oboists Allan Vogel, Stephen Taylor and Alex Klein.
Orchestrally, Mr. Avril has held the post of Principal Oboe with the Long Island Philharmonic, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta, and Marin Alsop’s mixed-genre chamber orchestra “Concordia” – of which he was a founding member – and he has served two summer seasons with the New York City Opera. He has played first oboe and English Horn for regional tours of Garrison Keillor and Victor Borge, as well as for tours of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Loren Maazell, the Greg Smith Singers, A Chorus Line, Camelot, and Cabaret. He can be heard in commercially released recordings of the Seattle Symphony, NZSO (while co-finalist for the English Horn position), the Bach Aria Group Festival, and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra.
In-demand as a guest speaker and arts advocate, he has appeared as guest artist-panelist on "Dialogues with the New York Philharmonic" with Zubin Mehta and Edward Downes; thrice on Robert Sherman’s “The Listening Room” (WQXR-FM, NYC); on WNCN-FM’s “Rising Star Showcase” (NYC); and in his own hour-long Public Television show on NYC‘s Westinghouse Group-W TV. A speaker at two of New York City then-Mayor Ed Koch's Arts Fundraisers, he served as both performer and panelist in YCA’s First Career Development for Young Artists Symposium at the University of Maryland - College Park; and was both a presenter and a panelist at Nora Post 's "Oboe Blow-Out II" in Portland, OR. He has been a member of the fulltime faculty of the Conservatory of Music of the University of Missouri at Kansas City, as well as of the School of Music of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, with adjunct teaching at both Furman University and Rockhurst University (MO).
Mr. Avril holds degrees from Yale University, where he studied with the eminent Robert Bloom, and from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Robert Sprenkle. His own students have gone on to successfully complete their graduate studies at Northwestern University with Ray Still (former Principal Oboe of the Chicago Symphony); at the Eastman School of Music with Richard Killmer; at the University of North Texas; the University of Maryland at College Park; and at the University of Vienna. Several have won national recognition by being top-prize winners in the competitions of the American Symphony Orchestra League, of the American Federation of Music Clubs, the Fischoff Competition, and the American Honors Orchestra.
A prize-winning nature photographer for four National Flower Societies (dahlia, iris, orchid and daffodil), Franck Avril was most recently Artistic Administrator of La Jolla Music Society after having served for nearly 7 years as Program and Operations Director for Chamber Music Northwest. He now resides in Rio Verde Foothills adjacent to the Tonto National Forest with his wife, Leigh Harris-Avril, and continues to follow his artistic pursuits, both musically and visually as a frequent substitute with the Phoenix Symphony and Ballet Arizona, while teaching at the Desert Hills Community School of Music.
Press:
Brilliant ... played with intensity and imagination, giving the piece shape, vitality and considerable interest." — The Washington Post
The power of nature, of love, and of music bound together in an experience that transcended the limits of time and space ... Art has nothing greater to offer us.— The Southampton Press, (L.I.)
Outstanding ... a consummate artist... a charming and relaxed performer. — ACUCAA Events Report
... a fluent performer with a cultivated tone . In addition to being a skilled technician, he is an imaginative interpreter with a lively ability to shape and personalize a phrase." — The New York Times
YouTube Channel: YouTube Channel: Franck Avril, oboe