Orion Rapp

Orion Rapp is Principal Oboist of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, a position he has held since the fall of 2013. He has also served as Principal Oboist of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra since 2009, where he is regularly featured as a soloist.

Orion maintains an active performance career outside of Indiana. He has performed as principal oboist with the San Diego Symphony, the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, and the Opera in the Ozarks Opera Orchestra. He has also performed with the San Diego Lyric Opera, and the La Jolla Music Society Summerfest Orchestra. Orion made his New York debut in 2013 in a production of Benjamin Britten’s opera, “The Rape of Lucretia."

An avid educator, Orion regularly coaches chamber music and teaches oboe reed-making at the historic Interlochen’s Summer Arts Camp. In addition, he has taught undergraduate chamber music at Rutgers University, and for three years Orion was a conductor and woodwind coach for the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey in Princeton, New Jersey. Orion is featured performing and teaching on the multimedia that accompanies Bruce Pearson’s and Ryan Nowlin’s nationally distributed band method books, Tradition of Excellence.

Orion is currently a doctoral candidate (DMA) at Rutgers University and he holds a Masters degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. His previous teachers include Nathan Hughes (principal oboist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Frank Rosenwein (principal oboist of the Cleveland Orchestra), and Dwight Parry (principal oboist of the Cincinnati Orchestra).