Dr. Kelley Tracz

Dr. Kelley Tracz is an oboist currently based in Minneapolis. She is the Assistant Professor of Oboe at Concordia College, and is very active as both a performer and educator in Minnesota and beyond. Kelley frequently performs with the Minnesota Orchestra and South Dakota Symphony, and has also made multiple appearances with additional orchestras across the country such as New World Symphony, Quad City Symphony, Brevard Music Center Festival Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Ohio Light Opera Orchestra, Greensboro Symphony, Temple Symphony Orchestra, Central Texas Philharmonic, and more. Kelley has received fellowships to Hidden Valley Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, Bay View Music Festival, and the Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy. She has been a featured soloist with the UNC Greensboro University Band, Austin Symphonic Band, Kansas State University Wind Ensemble, Packard Wind Band, and is also a past winner of the Midwest Double Reed Society Young Artist Competition.

As a passionate and dedicated educator, Kelley has given masterclasses and served as a clinician to young oboists and fellow music educators in Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas. Students of Kelley’s have advanced to Region, Area, and All-State ensembles in Texas, and have also been accepted into various schools of music across the country, including The Eastman School of Music, UT Austin, UMKC Conservatory, and Southern Methodist University. Kelley has served as a faculty artist for the national double reed camp, Bocal Majority, and was the premier instructor for the 2017 camp in Austin, TX. She was the oboe instructor at Camp Bernstein of Blue Lakes Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, MI for three consecutive seasons and has served as the oboe instructor for the Kansas State University Music Camp for seven seasons.

Kelley received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Oboe Performance and Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Ethnomusicology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. During her time at UNCG, Kelley studied with Dr. Ashley Barret and served as the Teaching Assistant for the Oboe Studio. Kelley also served as a Teaching Assistant for the Ethnomusicology Department. Kelley holds her Masters of Music degree from the University of Minnesota, where she was a Berneking Fellow, serving as rotating principal oboist of many of the top ensembles in the School of Music, and was a member of the school’s graduate woodwind quintet. Here she studied with Principal Oboe of the Minnesota Orchestra, John Snow. She completed her Bachelors of Music degree at Kansas State University, studying with Nora Lewis. Kelley has also studied extensively with Andrew Parker of UT Austin.