Recital: Izy Cheesman – oboe

The Programme

Izy Cheesman – oboe

12 Fantasias for Solo Flute
Fantasia No 2 in A minor
i. Grave
ii. Vivace
iii. Adagio
iv. Allegro

18 Études pour Hautbois ou Saxophone (1950)
9. Andantino
10. Sicilienne
16. Recitativo

Siren for Solo Oboe (2023)
dedicated to Izy Cheesman

Six Metamorphoses after Ovid
iv. Bacchus
v. Narcissus
vi. Arethusa

6 Études pour Hautbois (1984-85)
vi. Le Ballet Espagnol (Édouard Manet, 1862)

The Artist

Izy Cheesman completed both her Bachelor of Music and Master of Performance at the Royal College of Music in London, winning a scholarship place in 2015 and graduating in 2021 with Distinction. Izy studied oboe under the tuition of John Anderson, Juliana Koch, Olivier Stankiewicz, Fabien Thouand and David Theodore, and cor anglais with Christine Pendrill and Jane Marshall.

Izy is on trial for the position of Principal Oboe with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and with them in 2023 played Sleeping Beauty and Jewels at the Royal Opera House, and Swan Lake at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Izy has played alongside members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra after winning places on side-by-side schemes at the RCM, and currently freelances with orchestras including BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra, and Brixton Chamber Orchestra. Izy was a member of Southbank Sinfonia 22/23, one highlight including playing Mozart’s Gran Partita under the direction of oboist Nicholas Daniel.

A lover of theatre, Izy has played for Oxford Opera Company’s La Traviata in 2023, Green Opera’s Bluebeard’s Castle in 2022, Hampstead Garden Opera’s Hansel and Gretel in 2023 and The Marriage of Figaro in 2021, and Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera in Concert on their Guernsey tours. She has also previously played for Orion Orchestra at MusicFest Aberystwyth and the Marylebone Music Festival, and Siegfried Camerata in A Tribute to Queen.

As a soloist, Izy has performed Strauss’ Oboe Concerto with Somerset County Orchestra and Orpington Symphony Orchestra in 2023, and will play Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto with Bridport Chamber Orchestra in March 2024. In London, Izy has given many recitals at various churches, at the V&A Museum, and in 2021 during the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, gave an online recital for Nuova Concerts.

Izy has also been asked to play world premieres of new commissions for oboe; for the Farm Street Singers’ 2020 album Bread from Heaven, for European Romanticisms in Association’s Romantic Europe: The Virtual Exhibition, and most recently, Jericho Wood’s Siren for Solo Oboe, a piece dedicated to Izy which premiered in October 2023.