Dr. Anna Bradford is a freelance oboist and music educator in the Chicago area, having relocated from Boston, Massachusetts in 2023. Throughout her Boston career, Dr. Bradford frequently performed as a soloist, a chamber musician, and an orchestral musician, holding positions with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, The Cape Ann Symphony, the Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova, and the Boston Civic Symphony. As an educator, she ran one of the largest private music studios in Boston, in addition to teaching chamber music, oboe sectionals, private lessons, and young winds classes for the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras.
As a soloist, Dr. Bradford was named the 2014 winner of the Boston Woodwind Society's Ralph Gomberg Oboe Competition, and in 2017 she was hailed by the Boston Musical Intelligencer as a "confident and sensitive player" for a performance of the Mozart Oboe Quartet with Symphony Nova. As a chamber musician, Dr. Bradford is a founding member of the Kalliope Reed Quintet, the first professional reed quintet in New England and one of the first 50 reed quintets worldwide. Kalliope is a leading commissioner of underrepresented composers from across the Americas, and performs both commissioned and arranged works in local concerts, nationwide residencies, and in an international tour to Mazatlán, Mexico, sponsored by U.S. Artists International. Kalliope's debut album, Amaru, is available on all streaming services.
Dr. Bradford is equally passionate as a performer and an educator. Since relocating to Chicago, Dr. Bradford is now the English Horn player of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra and an Adjunct Professor at South Suburban College, where she teaches oboe, music history, and music appreciation. She also performs with the Milwaukee Ballet and the Danville Symphony Orchestra as well as other area ensembles. Dr. Bradford currently teaches oboe and chamber music to students of all ages and levels, including adult students, and believes in a student-centered approach to learning, where students' goals and strengths guide curriculum and lesson structure. In addition to her work at South Suburban College, Dr. Bradford maintains a growing private lessons studio both in-person and virtually, and teaches oboe in Districts 219 and 228 in the Illinois public schools.
