Jack S. Cozen Harel

Title: Professor of Instruction
Dept/Program: Music - Oboe
Office: Guzzetta Hall 361B
Phone: 330-972-2787
Email: jc133@uakron.edu

Biography

Jack Cozen Harel, oboist, joined the faculty of The University of Akron in 2010. Active as a soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Harel has been recognized with numerous awards including: Best Classical Soloist by Downbeat Magazine, winner of the Baroness Leni Fe Bland Competition, winner of the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition, recipient of the Eckstein Grant and William Banovetz Scholarship. He is currently the oboist of the world-renowned Solaris Quintet and has been an exclusive Yamaha Performing Artist since 2008.

Mr. Harel also serves on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music and is oboe teaching artist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has taught at the California Institute of Technology, Long Beach College, and Northwestern University. Additionally, he holds the Guinness World Record for "Fastest Oboe Playing".  This record was set by performing all 409 notes of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee in a time of 26.1 seconds.

Mr. Harel began his professional career at age 18 as the principal oboist of the San Francisco Sinfonietta. He holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Northwestern University, where he served as teaching associate to the oboe faculty. Mr. Harel also holds an Artist Diploma from the Colburn School, where he was the first oboist ever accepted into the prestigious conservatory program. His teachers include John de Lancie, James Moore, William Bennett, Grover Schiltz, and Allan Vogel.