Dr. Natalie Wren, oboe 

Oboist Natalie Wren has performed extensively throughout the United States as an orchestral and chamber musician and has made solo appearances in France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Natalie is currently second oboist and solo English Horn player in the West Point Band. As a member of the West Point Band’s Academy Wind Quintet and Double Reed Ensemble, Natalie has performed most recently in Japan, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Ohio, and the New York City metropolitan area. Natalie is also a member of Vent Nouveau, a versatile chamber ensemble dedicated to bringing attention to underperformed repertoire for winds and brass.

As an active freelance musician Natalie has performed with such renowned ensembles as the Louisville Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, South Carolina Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic, Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, among others. Natalie has been a featured soloist with the West Point Band, the Young Artists Debut Orchestra, and the Furman University Symphony Orchestra, and she was a distinguished performer at the International Double Reed Society (IDRS) conferences in New York City and Tokyo. Her work for various recording projects can be heard on the Universal Music Enterprises record label.

Natalie has held teaching positions at Earlham College and the Indian Springs Academy of Music, and has presented master classes at several universities including Arizona State University, Furman University, the Universities of Arizona, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Louisville, and Xavier University. Natalie's is dedicated to showcasing lesser-known works for oboe in performance and in writing. Her articles "Dana Wilson's Polystylistic Voice: Examining Excerpts from Mandala and Kalamus,"  and "The Compositional Eclecticism of Bohuslav Martinu: Examining His Chamber Works Featuring the Oboe," have been published in The Double Reed. You can find her articles on this website.

Natalie holds both a Doctor and a Master of Music degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, OH and a Bachelor of Music degree from Furman University in Greenville, SC, with additional studies at the Conservatoire de Versailles in France. Her teachers have included Petrea Warneck, Dr. Mark Ostoich, Christopher Philpotts, Dwight Parry and Pascal Saumon. Her reeds can be purchased at MKL Reeds.