Biography

Elizabeth Starr Masoudnia, solo English hornist of The Philadelphia Orchestra, since 1995, has toured the globe with the Orchestra to wide critical acclaim with many of the world’s finest conductors. A passionate advocate for the English horn, she has premiered many pieces written expressly for her including English horn concertos by Behzad Ranjbaran and Nicholas Maw and English horn chamber music by David Ludwig and Stephen Cohn. She recently released an album for English horn alone, English Horn Expressions, that features several new commissions for the instrument.

A Philadelphia native, Masoudnia graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with John de Lancie, former principal oboe of The Philadelphia Orchestra and former president of Curtis. Prior to that, she studied with the acclaimed oboist and English hornist, Louis Rosenblatt, her predecessor in The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Masoudnia was a participant in the Marlboro Music Festival and played oboe concertos with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia (now the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia) and the New York Symphonic Ensemble. In addition, she was the solo English hornist of the Minnesota Orchestra for seven years and is a featured artist on an album of Beethoven and Triebensee trios along with her Curtis oboe colleagues Marilyn Zupnick and Kathryn Greenbank.

Masoudnia is on the faculty of Temple University and the Philadelphia International Music Festival where she teaches oboe and English horn and coaches chamber music. In addition, she has given English horn master classes and private English horn lessons at the Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory.