He is an oboist born Evgeny Aleksandrovich Izotov in Moscow, Russia who started learning the oboe while young and studied at the Gnesin Schoolof Music before moving to the USA and studying at Boston University where he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Participating as a soloist in many international competition he has been awarded top prizes in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and New York in 1990, 1991and 1995 respectively and was the Fernand International Oboe Competition first prize winner in 2001.
After graduation he became the first oboist born in Russia to serve in any major American orchestra and has held the position of Principal Oboist of the Kansas Symphony, Principal Oboist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Principal Oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2014 the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas appointed him as Principal Oboist of the San Francisco Symphony.
A very active chamber musician and soloist he has collaborated with artists that include Emanuel Ax, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Yo-YoMa, Riccardo Muti and Itzak Perlman. Orchestras he has performed more than 70 times as a solo musician with include the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, MET Chamber Ensemble, the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra and the San Francisco Orchestra.
He has performed on Grammy Award winning recordings and some of these recordings are his own Sound in Motion along with 2018 Summer Festival by the Music Academy of the West, the soundtrack of the film Lincoln by Chicago Symphony Orchestra, World on a String by Daniel Koialka and Metallica With Michael Kamen Conducting the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra Part I and Part II by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
In the field of musical education he has been a faculty member at DePaul University, The Juilliard School, Music Academy of the West, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Verbier Festival, Switzerland He is also a member of the International Principals faculty of the Pacific Music Festival and was the oboe mentor for the YouTube Symphony in 2011 when it was resident at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. In 2019 Valery Gergiev invited him to serve on the Tchaikovsky International Competition’s first woodwind jury.
Sources:
- https://www.oboesolo.com/bio
- https://www.sfsymphony.org/Discover-the-Music/Articles-Interviews/Articles/MOM-EUGENE-IZOTOV
- https://www.musicacademy.org/profile/eugene-izotov/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Izotov
- https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-eugene-izotov-cso-oboe-20141113-story.html#page=1
- https://sfcm.edu/faculty/eugene-izotov
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/943012-Eugene-Izotov?type=Credits&filter_anv=0
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/eugene-izotov-mn0001348034/credits