Erin is the Director of an online oboe education program called the Oboe Path.
Erin Brophey
shares the joy of music-making with audiences across Canada. Erin is currently the Principal Oboe of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra (on sabbatical). Previously, Erin held the position of section oboe and English horn with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra for eight seasons. Erin is also an active freelance musician, and has performed with many Canadian orchestras, including the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, the Charlottetown Festival Orchestra and the Elora Festival Orchestra.
In 2000, Erin earned her Honours Bachelor of Music from Wilfrid Laurier University where she studied with James Mason. She completed her Master of Music degree at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania under the tutelage of Cynthia Koledo de Almeida in 2002.
Erin is so grateful to have performed in many summer festivals nation-wide including Festival of the Sound, West Ben Festival, Elora Festival, Stratford Music Festival, Tafelmusik Summer Baroque Institute, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, L’Orchestre de la Francophonie, and the National Academy Orchestra. Erin also performed at the Ritornello Festival with the Gryphon Trio.
As a performer, Erin is interested in the intersection of art forms and offering meaningful cultural experiences to audiences. She has a particular interest in music written by composers that identify as women and people of colour.
A joyful educator, Erin Brophey is a sessional lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan and is the Woodwind Coach for the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra. In Saskatoon, Erin co-directs a community double-reed band called Squawk and is active in new music programming. In addition, Erin is on faculty at the Inter-Provincial Music Camp in Parry Sound, Ontario.
Land Acknowledgments
Before we can walk down the path towards reconciliation, we must start with truth. Erin is a descendant of Irish immigrants that fled to Canada from starvation and religious persecution during the Potato Famine of Ireland.
The Government of Canada West gave Indigenous land to Erin’s ancestors around the Lake Huron area. Even though the agreements of Treaty 29 were not upheld, her family farmed there for many generations.
No longer farmers, Erin’s family moved to Northern Ontario on Robinson-Huron 1850 Treaty territory and spent her childhood at the shores of clean water and evergreens on land removed from Indigenous people.
15 years ago, Erin moved to Treaty 6 territory and settled along the shores of the Saskatchewan River. This land too was taken from Indigenous people. Erin is profoundly grateful to the people of Treaty 6 land for their pre-contact stewardship of this beautiful river.
A treaty is a promise and a responsibility. We are all treaty people.