Mayu Isom,

Second Oboe

Mayu Isom is the Second Oboe and English horn with the Houston Grand Opera and the Third Oboe with the Houston Ballet Orchestra. She served as Acting Principal Oboe with both orchestras for the 2021-22 Season and the start of the 2022-23 Season. Isom has also appeared as a soloist with the Houston Ballet Orchestra—performing English horn on Aaron Copland’s “Quiet City” as well as Stanton Welch’s “Orange”, featuring multiple Vivaldi oboe concertos. Isom has been invited to perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the former San Antonio Symphony, the San Antonio Philharmonic, the Amarillo Symphony, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and others. She also serves on the Oboe faculty at the California Orchestra Academy Summer Music Festival. Her festival performances include the Spoleto Festival USA, Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra, and many other summer orchestras. Prior to winning her position in Houston, Isom was a member of the studios of John Ferrillo and Anne Marie Gabriele at Boston University. While in Boston, Isom won the Ralph Gomberg Merit Award Competition through the Boston Woodwind Society. Isom earned her Master of Music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where she was awarded a full scholarship to study with Robert Atherholt, and earned her Bachelor of Music at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music as a prestigious Jacobs Scholar under the tutelage of Linda Strommen and Roger Roe.