Overview
Andréa E. Banke recently retired as Principal Oboe with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and Solo Oboe with the Lieurance Woodwind Quintet after a career-ending nerve injury in 2019. After 15 years as Professor of Oboe at Wichita State University, she now serves as Assistant Professor of Theory and Instructor of Chamber Music and Literature at WSU. As well, Banke serves as Program Director of the Master of Arts in Arts Leadership and Management (MAALM) degree at WSU. In 2020 she was selected to be an inaugural Faculty Lead and to help create the Widener Global Leaders Program, a multi-disciplinary initiative to train women in business, communication, and music. She has additional training in leadership curriculum from the Kansas Leadership Center. Banke was the recipient of the Micky and Pete Armstrong Excellence in Teaching Award for WSU’s College of Fine Arts in 2018, and the 2020 Anita Jones Fine Arts Fellowship.
In her career as an orchestral and chamber musician, Andréa has over 25 years of experience in arts leadership and outreach initiatives. She believes music is for everyone, no exceptions.
From 1997-2018, Ms. Banke performed over 600 woodwind quintet recitals, educational concerts, and outreach classes as solo oboist of the Dakota Wind Quintet and Lieurance Woodwind Quintet, appearing in diverse venues from a Sioux Indian pow wow to a high-security prison in Nebraska.
The Wichita Eagle has hailed her playing as “lush,” “exquisite,” and having “impeccable style and execution.” Prior to coming to Kansas, Ms Banke held the position of Principal Oboe of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in New York. An active chamber musician, Andréa has frequently performed as Guest Principal Oboe of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Ms Banke has appeared with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Heidelberg Opera Schlossfestpiele in Germany, the Camerata Philharmonica Bohemia in Czech Republic, and been a recitalist with members of the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, among others.
Ms. Banke earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music, summa cum laude, and the University of Minnesota, summa cum laude.