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The Australian oboist, Diana Doherty, began studying violin, piano and oboe at the ages of 6, 7 and 8 respectively. She attended Brisbane State High School. After one year as a double major on oboe and piano at Queensland Conservatorium she focused her energies on oboe and in 1986 completed her Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, where she was awarded the M.E.N.S.A prize for top graduating student. During this time she won the ‘Other Instruments’ section of the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition and was named ‘Most Outstanding Competitor Overall’ for 1985. With the assistance of an Australia Council Overseas Study Grant, she studied in Zürich with Thomas Indermuhle and completed her post-graduate diploma in 1989. During this time she also took courses with Maurice Bourge and won first prizes in the International Lyceum Club Competition and the International Chamber Music Competition in Martigny. She continued to accumulate prizes in international competitions, including the prestigious Prague Spring Festival Competition of 1991, where she was awarded first prize and an additional prize for best interpretation of a Czech concerto (Martinu concerto).
Since then Diana Doherty has performed regularly as a soloist, including performances in various international festivals, such as Prague Spring Festival, MusicaRiva festival in Italy, Bratislava Music Festival, ‘Young Artist in Concert’ Festival in Davos, Switzerland. In May 1994 she was soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra on its tour to China.
Diana Doherty was joint winner of the 1995 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, held in New York. Previous winners include Emanuel Ax, Murray Perahia and Pinchas Zukerman. She was subsequently presented in New York and Washington D.C. recital debuts to critical acclaim, and toured extensively within the USA doing recitals and master-classes, as well as performing in the Chamber music series at the Spoleto festival in Charleston South Carolina, and a concerto performance at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Between 1990 and 1997, Diana Doherty was Principal Oboe in the Symphony Orchestra of Lucerne. Her first CD of concertos by Haydn, W.A. Mozart, Martinu and Zimmerman with the Symphony Orchestra of Lucerne was released in Europe on Pan Classics in 1995. She joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as Principal Oboe in July 1997.
In 2001 Diana Doherty won the Australian Entertainment MO award for Classical/Opera performer of the year, specifically for her premiere performance of Graeme Koehne’s oboe concerto, "Inflight Entertainment" (March 2000). In 2002 she performed another new Australian oboe concerto, this time by Ross Edwards, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Lorin Maazel. This unusual work includes choreography for the oboist-cum-dancer. As a result of this performance she received the 2003 APRA- Australian Music Centre award for best performance of an Australian work, and has been invited by Lorin Maazel to perform (play and dance) the work with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005. Doherty has since become particularly associated with the concerto. Another highlight of 2002 was a tour for Musica Viva with the Belcea Quartet.
Diana Doherty has recorded the Ross Edwards concerto, as well as works by Haydn, W.A. Mozart, Martinů, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Graeme Koehne, Carl Vine, and others, with orchestras such as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Australis, and the Queensland Orchestra, and under conductors such as Arvo Volmer, Olaf Henzold, Takuo Yuasa, Ola Rudner, Marl Summerbell and Werner Andreas Albert. Her second CD, “Romantic Oboe Concertos” with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under Werner Andreas Albert was released on ABC Classics in 1998, and in 2000 her recording “Blues for DD” (a recital programme of folk and jazz influenced works with pianist David Korevaar) was released, also by ABC Classics. Her latest CD “Souvenirs”, a new album for ABC Classics of beautiful melodies for the oboe has been released in 2003. |
