Active as a performer in chamber, recital and orchestral settings, Roger Roe has served as English Horn and Assistant Principal Oboe of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra since 1995, following positions with the orchestras of Honolulu and Charleston, SC. In addition, he served for 24 years as Associate Professor of Oboe at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where his many wonderful students have gone on to perform in orchestras and other ensembles around the world, as well as to careers in many other fields.
Roger has appeared as soloist with the ISO and other orchestras on oboe, oboe d’amore, and English horn, as well as narrator and creative director for children’s concerts. In recent years, he has played chamber music concerts in locations as far-flung as Israel and Bulgaria, as well as in recitals and master classes around the United States. For the last 15 years, he has also loved performing an astonishing variety of chamber music with incredible colleagues from around the world at the Staunton Music Festival in Virginia.
Roger champions new music for oboe and English horn, having premiered several new pieces and commissioned new works. He is also interested in theatricality and improvisation in music and other arts, as well as the intersection of music and spirituality, enjoying recent collaborations with ministers, rabbis, dancers, actors, singers, poets and others on various liturgical and scholarly projects.