Valarie Anderson

Valarie Anderson is widely recognized for her expertise in reed making equipment for the oboe. She is the owner of Jeanné, Inc., and divides her time between performance and research into new products for double reed performers. Ms. Anderson began developing shaper tips during 1989 and by the spring of 1991, when they first were introduced to the marketplace, her oboe and English horn shaper tips were being widely used by oboists in many of the top orchestras in the United States. Today her shaper tips and gouging machines are used by prominent oboists worldwide. She has also the author of the acclaimed book on oboe reed making, Gouge, Shape and Scrape: A Comprehensive Guide to the Oboe Reed.

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Anderson has performed extensively as a soloist and in chamber music concerts in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Peru, Germany, Taiwan, and Norway. In addition to concerto performances in the United States and Canada, she has presented solo recitals at International Double Reed Society and College Music Society Conferences. She has premiered at least ten works specifically written for her.

Ms. Anderson is a founding member of the chamber ensemble, Fiati, and has recorded 4 compact discs with that ensemble. Fiati was formed in 1996 to perform and record chamber works involving oboe and clarinet with other instruments. Masterworks for Reed Trio was recorded in 1996 and includes compositions by Jean Françaix, Bohuslav Martinu, Heitor Villa-Lobos and a quartet for reed trio and piano by Florent Schmitt. Blend, released in 2001, features chamber works for oboe, clarinet and strings or piano, including the first recordings of Judith Lang Zaimont’s . . . 3: 4, 5 . . . for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, and bass and Lloyd Ultan’s Curved Mirrors for oboe, clarinet and piano. Deck the Hall: A Holiday Celebration with Fiati, released in September 2002, features the traditional woodwind quintet, but with novel and creative instrumental arrangements of Christmas holiday favorites by Noel Scott Stevens. Impressions, released in 2005, features trios for oboe, clarinet and piano by Edouard Destenay, Margaret Griebling-Haigh, Gabriel Marie, Andre Previn, and Randall Davidson. The most recent recording, A Portrait of Brazil, was released in 2010 and features compositions by Joao Guilherme Ripper.

Ms. Anderson has served on the faculties of the University of Alberta/Grande Prairie from 1975-1982 and Virginia Tech from 1983 to 1990. From 1983 to 1997, she also was principal oboist with the Roanoke (VA) Symphony. She is frequently called upon to do oboe master classes, both nationally and internationally. In addition she has offered classes and private lessons in reed making and gouging machine set up.