Rosie Staniforth

Rosie was brought up in Yorkshire, where she began playing the oboe at the age of nine. She read Modern Languages at Oxford University before being awarded a post-graduate scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where she studied with John Anderson and Michael Winfield, and gave the London premiere of the Horovitz Oboe Concerto.

She continued her studies with eminent oboist Maurice Bourgue at the Geneva Conservatoire (where she gained a first-class Virtuosité diploma) and, subsequently, at the Paris Conservatoire, on the prestigious Troisième Cycle programme. Rosie has won numerous prizes at international competitions, including first prize at the Hans Schaeuble Cor Anglais competition, and has given many concerto performances, most recently Vaughan Williams in Glasgow and Strauss in Stirling.

Rosie is an active chamber musician – recent highlights include performances with the soloists of the Philharmonia and the Maurice Bourgue Wind Ensemble.

She accepted a permanent position with the SCO in 1998 after freelancing with many of the UK’s leading orchestras. In 2003 she was appointed to the teaching staff at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has been tutoring the oboe section of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland for several years.

Her hobbies include playing poker, horse-riding and dancing salsa and Argentine tango.

What is on your iPod, of what do you listen to in the car?

I listen mainly to jazz (I have a large collection of female vocalists, from the old greats – Ella Fitzgerald/Sarah Vaughan/Billie Holiday etc… to current high flyers – Stacey Kent, Claire Martin, Diana Krall, Claire Teal) and opera.

Tea or coffee?

I’m very fussy – it’s either herbal tea or decaf, soya latte (otherwise know as ‘what’s the point?’ coffee!)