Jessica Pearlman

Jessica Pearlman has served as principal oboist of Pacific Symphony since 2009. Pearlman moved to Southern California for the position after completing her Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School as a student of Elaine Douvas, Nathan Hughes and Pedro Diaz, all of the Metropolitan Opera. While in New York, she performed and toured with some of the city's most esteemed ensembles, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New York City Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera. She was a member of the Verbier (Switzerland) Festival Orchestra from 2007-2009, with whom she participated in two international tours led by Charles Dutoit and Ludovic Morlot and worked in the summer under such conductors as Valery Gergiev and Kurt Masur.

As a soloist, Pearlman was featured with the San Jose Chamber Symphony, a performance MetroActive described as "extraordinary… [she] dazzled through the overlapping melodies and 32nd-note runs of a bravura show-off piece by Antonino Pasculli…[a] barrage of acclamation followed her tour de force…" Other solo appearances include the Mozart oboe concerto with the Pacific Chamber Symphony and Colorado College Summer Music Festival and the Bach Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin with the Mansfield (OH) Symphony Orchestra where she also served as principal oboe during the 2005-2006 season.

An avid chamber musician, Pearlman performs with Orli Shaham and other members of Pacific Symphony on its Café Ludwig Chamber Music Series and toured regularly with her innovative New York-based chamber group “Shuffle Concert.”

Southern California introduced Pearlman to the world of Hollywood studio music and she has since played on over one hundred recordings, including the last three films in the Star Wars saga under the musical direction of John Williams and on albums with legendary artists such as Barbra Streisand and Seal. 

Among Pearlman’s other talents, she is a dedicated and passionate teacher. She served as a secondary oboe teacher to undergraduate students while at Oberlin College and Yale University (where she spent the first year of graduate school), and in 2006 served as woodwind professor for the Associaciòn Nacional de Conciertos youth music festival in Panamà, returning twice thereafter. Pearlman has been an adjunct faculty member at numerous colleges and universities across Southern California including California State Universities Long Beach and Fullerton, Irvine Valley College, Mount San Antonio College and Chapman University in addition to maintaining a private studio.

Equally adept at the English horn, Pearlman has been an audition finalist for English horn positions of many of the nation’s finest orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Houston Symphony and San Diego Symphony. 

Pearlman hails from Half Moon Bay, CA where she studied oboe and violin and performed in the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and with her local community orchestra. Her continued study of music and science brought her to Oberlin College and Conservatory, where she earned a B.M. under the tutelage of the late James Caldwell as well as a B.A. in neuroscience, as a pre-med student. Her summer research in brain tumor models conducted at Johns Hopkins University was presented at the 2006 conference of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.  Pearlman enjoys splitting her time between Northern and Southern California and maintains a rigorous and rewarding recording and performing career. Please visit Pearlman online at www.jessica-pearlman.com.