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Press Releases
Oliver Talukder oboist and pianist Moriah Trenk make their recording debut
Winner of Cedille Records’ 2025 Emerging Artist Competition, Chicago-born oboist Oliver Talukder makes his solo recording debut with "Briefly Gorgeous". Joined by pianist Moriah Trenk Check this out! -- The performance is breathtaking!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MWemClk-Xs
For more information contact:
Carrie Feiner -FeinerEnt@gmail.com/914-725-0200
Oliver Talukder is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and teaching artist of Mexican and Bengali heritage. Through his performances, recordings, and creative projects, he explores the intersections of classical music, cultural identity, and storytelling. Equally at home on the stage and in community-centered collaborations, Talukder is committed to creating musical experiences that are both artistically compelling and deeply human.
Talukder currently serves as Second Oboist of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra and has appeared as a guest musician with the Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Symphony in C, and Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
In 2025, Talukder won Cedille Record’s second Emerging Artist Competition, earning a recording contract for his debut solo album, Briefly Gorgeous. James Ginsburg, Cedille Records founder and President, remarked, “What made Oliver stand out was an innate musicality and imagination in his musical choices… He has a knack for communicating to and really communing with the audience.”
Inspired by his multicultural upbringing in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, his debut album explores themes of identity, love, and family. Reviewing an early performance of the program, Gramophone praised Talukder’s “stylistically persuasive, refreshingly open-eared approach to music making”; added that he “joyously blew past boundaries separating classical, jazz and populist musical idioms”; and concluded by calling him “a welcome new voice in music.”
His early musical foundation was laid during his time with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, The People’s Music School, the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, and Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the USA. Talukder’s honors also include First Prize in the 2022 Midwest Double Reed Society Competition and Outstanding Instrumentalist at the 2024 and 2026 Sphinx Orchestral Partners Audition (SOPA) Competition.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Katherine Needleman, Philippe Tondre, and Richard Woodhams, Talukder was named the 2024 Presser Scholar and served as Student Council President. Talukder is currently pursuing his Master’s degree in Oboe Performance at The Juilliard School under the guidance of Elaine Douvas. His previous teachers include William Welter, Xiomara Mass, Toyin Spellman-Diaz, Robert Walters, Elizabeth Koch Tiscione, Lindsay Wiley, and Jennifer Stucki. While at Curtis, he held the William S. Mulherin and Joseph F. Baker Fellowship.
vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative artist. She has performed at premier venues and concert series nationwide including Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Bargemusic, Jordan Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. She was recently featured as a performer on WFMT, Chicago’s classical music radio station, with oboist Oliver Talukder. She is a featured performer on Briefly Gorgeous, which will be released by Cedille Records this fall.
performed with Boston’s Volunteer Musicians for the Arts, and served as an accompanist for Eureka Ensemble’s Women's Chorus.
underrepresented and contemporary composers. Trenk’s festival and residency appearances include the Vail Dance Festival, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Manchester Music Festival, Garth Newel Music Center, and National Music Festival.
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