From bagpipes to karaoke, there’s no limit to what you can learn in music. As a lecturer and performer, Dr. Linski is constantly looking for opportunities to help students express themselves by encouraging them to discover their voice as performers, educators, and composers.
A native of Duluth, MN, Dr. Linski received his Bachelor of Music in oboe performance (magna cum laude, departmental honors) from the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) in 2008, where he studied with Laurie Van Brunt (whose teachers included Thomas Stacy, Laurence Thorstenberg, and Wayne Rapier). Following undergraduate work, Dr. Linski attended the University of Houston (UH), where he studied with Dr. Anne Leek (whose teachers included Thomas Stacy, Harold Gomberg, and John de Lancie). While at UH, Dr. Linski earned his Master of Music degree (2010), and Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a minor in music literature (2015).
Dr. Linski regularly performs on oboe and English horn and has subbed with several symphony orchestras in Minnesota and Texas, including the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony. Solo appearances include the Concertino for English horn by Donizetti, Copland’s Quiet City, and Ewazen’s Down a River of Time with the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra in Duluth, and the Marcello Concerto for Oboe with the Zachow Consort and Players in Houston. He can be heard on the CD So the Night Fall: Music of David Ashley White from Gothic Records.
As a lecturer, Dr. Linski teaches all levels of music history at UMD and has taught graduate courses on Wagner, Debussy and Ravel, and the Romantic Period. In 2019, Dr. Linski presented his lecture “How to NOT Kill Mozart: Guidelines for Cadenza Composition in the Oboe Concerto by Mozart” at the annual International Double Reed conference in Tampa Bay, FL.
When he isn’t busy trying to help students become better musicians, writers, and teachers, he can be found in his study practicing oboe, writing novels, studying music, or drawing comics for his classes.
Upcoming projects include final editing on his book Oboes Don’t Polka: A Teaching Guide for Non-Oboists, and a performance of the English horn concerto Letters from the Wilderness, which Dr. Linski commissioned from Houston composer Mark Buller.