Dr. Kelley Tracz is the current Assistant Professor of Oboe at Concordia College. She also serves as the Associate Principal Oboe of the South Dakota Symphony and has performed with numerous orchestras across the country, including as a frequent substitute musician with the Minnesota Orchestra. Dr. Tracz also has performed with the Kansas City Symphony, New World Symphony, Quad City Symphony, Sioux City Symphony, Brevard Music Center Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Ohio Light Opera Orchestra, Greensboro Symphony, Central Texas Philharmonic, and more. She can be heard on the Minnesota Orchestra's recent release of Mahler 3 with Osmo Vänska, as well as a world premiere piece by John Luther Adams with the South Dakota Symphony. As a chamber musician, Dr. Tracz has performed in various festivals, including Lakes Area Music Festival (Brainerd, Minnesota), Festival of the Lakes (Alexandria, Minnesota), Bay View Music Festival (Petoskey, Michigan), and other independently produced recitals around the country. She has been a featured soloist with the Concordia College Wind Ensemble, Concordia College Symphonic Band, UNC Greensboro University Band, Austin Symphonic Band, Kansas State University Wind Ensemble, Packard Wind Band, and is also a past winner of the Midwest Double Reed Society Young Artist Competition.
Dr. Tracz has performed at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Boulder, Colorado, and most recently premiered Alyssa Morris' new double oboe concerto alongside the composer at the 2023 conference in Thailand. As a clinician, she presented at the 2023 Minnesota Music Education Association conference and Minnesota Band Directors Association, the focus of the presentation aimed at helping band directors in both urban and rural communities successfully start a student on oboe or switch them over from another instrument, when resources such as reeds, lessons, and repair may not be easily accessible due to financial or geographical challenges. As a passionate and dedicated educator, she has given masterclasses and served as a clinician to young oboists and fellow music educators in Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, South Dakota, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas. Students of Dr. Tracz have advanced to Region, Area, and All-State ensembles in Texas and Minnesota and have also been accepted into various schools of music across the country, including The Eastman School of Music, UT Austin, UMKC Conservatory, and Southern Methodist University. She has served as a faculty artist for the national double reed camp, Bocal Majority, and was the premier instructor for the 2017 camp in Austin, Texas. She was the oboe instructor at Camp Bernstein of Blue Lakes Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan, and Kansas State University Music Camp for seven seasons. Most recently, she has served as the double reed instructor at Cobb Summer Music Camp held on the Kennesaw State University campus in Georgia.
Dr. Tracz received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Oboe Performance and Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Ethnomusicology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. During her time at UNCG, she studied with Dr. Ashley Barret and served as the Teaching Assistant for the Oboe Studio. She also served as a Teaching Assistant for the Ethnomusicology Department. Dr. Tracz holds her Master of Music degree from the University of Minnesota, where she was a Berneking Fellow, serving as rotating principal oboist of many of the top ensembles in the School of Music, and was a member of the school’s graduate woodwind quintet. Here, she studied with former Principal Oboe of the Minnesota Orchestra, John Snow. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at Kansas State University, studying with Dr. Nora Lewis. Additionally, she has studied with Dr. Andrew Parker of UT Austin, as well as extensive English horn study with Carolyn Hove of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.