Robert Sheena

Advanced musicianship, tone production, practice habits and discipline, all aspects of reed making, jury, recital and audition preparation, fundamental oboe evaluation, maintenance and repair—you will have very thorough training as a student in my studio.

Robert Sheena joined the Conservatory to teach oboe and English horn in 2000 and is an associate professor of oboe. He is also on the oboe and English horn faculty of Boston University's School of Music and the Tanglewood Institute, and he teaches and coaches the oboe fellowship students of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Music Center every summer. 

Sheena is the Boston Symphony Orchestra's English horn player, having joined the orchestra in 1994. In that role, he exclusively plays all English horn solos and parts, and he has also played first oboe, second oboe, and oboe d'amore with the orchestra. From 1987 to 1991, he was assistant principal oboe and English horn with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and he served in the same role from 1991 to 1994 with the San Antonio Symphony. He makes frequent trips to Japan to perform, having played with the Super World Orchestra, the Affinis Music Festival, and the Seiji Ozawa's Saito Kinen Orchestra. Sheena is also very active in chamber music in the Greater Boston area, annually joining Boston Symphony Orchestra colleagues and often the Boston Symphony Chamber Players as a guest artist. 

He received his Bachelor of Music degree (with honors) from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1983 and a Master of Music degree (with honors) from Northwestern University's School of Music in 1984. His teachers have included many of the greatest oboists of the previous generation: Ray Still, John Mack, Grover Schiltz, William Banovetz, and Marc Lifschey.

Professional Awards and Recognitions

• Sonnets: Tone poems for English horn and orchestra by George Tsontakis (commissioned by Boston Symphony Orchestra expressly for Sheena), 2016