Kai Frömbgen
oboe
Born in Koblenz, in 1977, Kai studied first at the Luxemburg Conservatoire with Norbert Mattern. He received the first prize of the federal competition “Jugend musiziert” three times, in 1991, 1993 and 1995. After passing his A-levels, he started studying with Professor Christian Wetzel in the School of Music and Drama “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” in Leipzig. He received scholarships from the Foundation "Studienstiftung des deutsche Volkes", the Villa Musica and the Richard Wagner Society. He played in the EUYO for two years, in 1998 and 1999. In 1999, he got the co- principal oboe position in the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and then he became the principal oboe of the Bamberger Symphonikern - Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie in 2003. Kai is a keen chamber musician and performed with Frank-Peter Zimmermann, Christian Zacharias, Mirijam Contzen, Christoph Eschenbach and the wind ensemble Sabine Meyer. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, he was the principal oboe of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, directed by Claudio Abbado. Since 2012 he is principal oboe of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and plays with Bernard Haitink and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. As a guest he played with several German orchestras like the Radio Orchestras of Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Münchner Philharmoniker. He teaches oboe (Lehrauftrag) at the Musikhochschule in Cologne.
