S. Blake Duncan has enjoyed a varied career as an oboist, English Horn player, Baroque Oboist, a performer of early music and recorder and as a teacher. Mr. Duncan is currently teaching as the Oboe Instructor at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and also teaches on the faculty of the Highland Music School. Previously he served as an affiliate faculty member in the Music Department at Bradley University for 17 years, teaching oboe, recorder, music appreciation, music technology and as the director of the early music Collegium Musicum. He also served on the faculty as oboe instructor, chair of the woodwind department, director of the Collegium Musicum and as a member of the Moveré Woodwind Quintet for the Lutheran Summer Music Program for 15 years and has been a member of the Illinois, Peoria and Cedar Rapids IA Symphony Orchestras playing English Horn and oboe. Mr. Duncan currently plays principal oboe with the Edwardsville Symphony Orchestra and he continues to perform as a member of the Peoria Bach Festival Orchestra, of which he was a founding member. Additionally, he also performs throughout southern Illinois and the St Louis area as a free-lance oboist on both modern and historical oboes. In the past he has also been a member of the Columbus, Ohio based early music ensemble The Early Interval, and he performed as member of WiZARDS! A Double Reed Quartet in the 2000’s, with whom he participated in several recordings, all of which are still available from Crystal Records.
Mr. Duncan earned a bachelor of music performance in oboe from the New England Conservatory in Boston and a Master of Music in Conducting and Oboe from Binghamton University. His teachers have included John Holmes, Larry Thorstenberg, Bert Lucarelli, John Mack and Nancy Ambrose King. While a student at NEC he not only studied modern oboe and English Horn, but also Early Music Performance Practice, Baroque Oboe, Shawm, Recorder and early dance. His teachers on Baroque Oboe have included Geoffrey Burgess, Meg Owen and Jeanine Krause. As a Baroque oboist he performs regularly with the Collegium Vocale of St. Louis and as a free-lance artist on Baroque Oboe throughout the region.