Oboe and English Horn Graduate Haley Hoffman Joins California Symphony

SFCM's oboe and English horn studios have chalked up another job win: 2024 graduate Haley Hoffman has joined the California Symphony beginning this season.

Hoffman studied with Eugene Izotov and Russ deLuna while attended the Conservatory. "They've both been so important in helping me get to where I am," Hoffmann says. "I'm very grateful to them for everything."

Hoffman initially wanted to play clarinet when signing up for an instrument in sixth grade growing up in Texas, but when she was asked about oboe instead, the moment she played it, her teacher noted her immediate ease on the instrument.

"I loved it," she says. "I was super curious, and my parents never had to bug me to practice. I just loved getting better. I was encouraged to do music education in my undergrad, but I focused on performance for my master's, and came to SFCM. I was so excited when I got in because Eugene and Russ are indisputably some of the top players in the world on their instruments."

 

 

 

 

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From left: Izotov, Hoffman, and deLuna.

Hoffman did some student teaching and was actually offered a job, but remembers thinking, "If I get into a conservatory, this is meant to be. I have to go. I've always wanted to perform, and I do like teaching also, but I just thought, 'This is my chance, and I'll always regret it if I don't see it through.'"

When it came to her audition for the California Symphony, Hoffman says she readjusted her mindset. "In the past I felt like I was really attached to the result of the audition, like 'This is a life or death situation. My life depends on whether this goes well or not.' But it was a lot more productive for me to just think about auditions as checkpoints: 'Let's see how this goes, and use that information to go from there. My self-worth does not decrease because I don't advance or win.'"

"So I actually felt very calm onstage for this audition," she continues. "I wasn't trying to perceive what the committee might be thinking about me or what I was doing."
 

Hoffman also cites the book Six Weeks to Finals by Sharon Sparrow as a helpful resource. She jokes, "I mean, I'm a Type A personality. I play the oboe, after all. We're kinda known for being high-strung, like we have to spend all day scraping a piece of wood at a desk. So I like looking at all the different ways to prepare, working from micro to macro, and taking what works for you and leaving what doesn't depending on your schedule or stage of life."

It's a good thing she was prepared. Hoffman won her audition on September 14th, and was planning to attend the Symphony's season opener two weeks later, but got a call on Friday the 25th, at 9:15 am asking if she could be at rehearsal in 45 minutes.

"I just said, 'Yes, I'll be there.' I've freelanced around the Bay Area a good bit, so I'd played some of the rep before, but I had to sight-read the other piece on the program. It was a drop-of-the-hat thing, but I just thought, 'Well, I'm doing this.'"

Learn more about studying oboe at SFCM.