Carolyn Banham

Oboes (Oboe & English Horn)

Carolyn Banham has been a proud member of the Saint Louis Symphony since 2006, when  she was appointed to the Solo English horn chair by Music Director David Robertson. A native of Philadelphia, she attended Temple University and studied with renowned Philadelphia Orchestra English hornist emeritus Louis Rosenblatt. She later moved to New York and received a Masters from the Manhattan School of Music, as a scholarship student of Joseph Robinson, retired Principal Oboe of the New York Philharmonic.

Before joining the SLSO, Banham held many posts, including English horn with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Principal Oboe with the Memphis Symphony, Fellow with the New World Symphony, and English horn with the Symphony Orchestra of the State of Mexico, in Mexico City. She has appeared as a featured soloist with all of these orchestras, most recently last December, with David Robertson and the SLSO in Copland's Quiet City. She has performed nationally and abroad with various festivals, among them Tanglewood, UBS Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Spoleto USA, the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, and the Bellingham Music Festival.

Hailed by the New York Times for “supremely beautiful and graceful virtuosity,” and by the Boston Globe for playing “outstanding in quality of tone and eloquence of phrase,” Banham has performed over thirty concerts with the New York Philharmonic, and has been a guest in the principal English horn chairs of the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra.  She has performed under the batons of musical legends such as James Levine, Michael Tilson Thomas, Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, and the late Giuseppe Sinopoli.

Known to friends as “Cally,” Banham is also a teacher of oboe and English horn. She often performs chamber music with wonderful colleagues from the SLSO, and gives educational demonstration concerts in St. Louis elementary schools twice a month. When not working, Banham is again a student—of salsa dance. She reads, cooks, travels, loves to eat and drink wine, and is an animal lover and environmentalist.