Renae Stavely

Renae began her musical journey with group piano lessons at a small Perth primary school. At twelve she began to learn the oboe. Renae has a Bachelor of Music (Performance) from the University of Western Australia where she studied with Mr Joel Marangella. Whilst at University Renae won several faculty prizes and toured Europe and Australia with the Australian Youth Orchestra. At 22 Renae won the position of second oboe with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and was also an instrumental finalist in the ABC Young Performers Awards. Renae performed the Strauss Oboe Concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra as part of this competition.

Renae was the $60 000 Robert Stoltz Award winner in 1996. This enabled her to study at the Vienna Conservatorium of Music under the tutelage of Alexander Ohlberger of the Vienna Philharmonic. Whilst in Vienna, she performed solo on the Austrian National television station ORF 2, played concerts in the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, and toured Austria with the Conservatorium Wind Quintet.

Whilst in Europe, Renae joined the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra in Germany and toured the great concert halls of Europe. She subsequently spent time studying in New York with Joseph Robinson Principal Oboe of the New York Philharmonic, Elaine Douvas Co-Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and John Ferrillo (formerly) Co-Principal of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

After four years with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Renae then joined the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. For the 2002 Adelaide Writers Festival, she performed Benjamin Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid in collaboration with celebrated author David Malouf. She has performed the Cimarosa Oboe Concerto and the Vasks Concerto for Two Oboes with the ASO. She has toured, performed and recorded with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and in recent years has had engagements with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Renae is also a staff member at Brighton Secondary School where she teaches oboe and chamber music.