Faculty & Staff

Dr. Anna Bradford is a Chicago-based oboist and music educator, having relocated from Boston where she spent over 10 years teaching and freelancing. In addition to her teaching at VanderCook, Dr. Bradford teaches oboe, chamber music, music history, and music appreciation at South Suburban College, and teaches private oboe students in districts 219 and 228 as well as in her home studio and online.

Dr. Bradford’s experience teaching oboists of all ages and levels has led her to develop her “Teaching the Functional Musician” approach to lessons, which combines oboe and reed-making pedagogy with additional support in the development of systems, schedules, and the executive functioning skills that are required for musicians and music students to succeed in their chosen pathways. She believes in a student-centered approach to learning, where each student is treated as an individual and everyone’s unique goals and strengths guide curriculum and lesson structure.

Hailed for her “confident and sensitive playing” (the Boston Musical Intelligencer), Dr. Bradford is equally at home performing as a chamber musician, an orchestral musician, and as a soloist. Dr. Bradford performs as the oboist with the Kalliope Reed Quintet, with whom she has performed on many stages throughout New England, on national stages at the International Double Reed Society, ClarinetFest, and Meg Quigley Bassoon Symposium conferences, and on international stages while on tour to Sinaloa, Mexico. Her work with Kalliope can be heard on their two albums, Amaru and Cañas sin Fronteras (Reeds without Borders). As an orchestral musician, Dr. Bradford currently holds positions as 2nd oboe/English horn with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra in Maine and 3rd oboe/English horn with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra in Illinois, and also performs with Camerata Chicago, the Milwaukee Ballet, the Danville Symphony Orchestra, and the Whiting Park Festival Orchestra. She previously held positions with the Cape Ann Symphony, Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova, and the Boston Civic Symphony in Massachusetts. As a soloist, Dr. Bradford won the 2014 Boston Woodwind Society Ralph Gomberg Oboe Competition, and she enjoys performing as an active recitalist.

Dr. Bradford holds a Doctorate of the Musical Arts from Boston University, a Masters of Music from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a Bachelor’s of Music from Western Michigan University. Her principal teachers have included Robert Sheena, Andrew Price, Linda Strommen, Dr. Michael Miller, and Dr. Nancy Ambrose King.