From the Stage to the Executive Suite: How James Roe's Career as an Oboist Prepared Him to Lead the Orchestra of St. Luke's
James Roe.
After more than two decades as one of New York City's busiest freelance oboists, James Roe decided to pivot his career.
He packed up his oboe case, reed knife, and metronome to take on leadership positions at two of the ensembles he had regularly performed with. First he spent two years as president and CEO of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, before moving into his current role as president and executive director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, where he's been since 2015.
How did 25 years of performing in symphony orchestras prepare him to lead one himself? For Roe, his seat in the oboe section gave him a strategic vantage point — one that allowed him to see thousands of concerts play out on the faces of audience members in real time.
"You could see when something was hitting, that look in someone's eye that meant the music was meaningful to them," Roe says on the latest episode of the Classical Post podcast. "I've taken that into my leadership role because it shows that, as musicians and musical organizations, our mission is not fulfilled on stage — that's only the beginning. The mission is fulfilled in the hearts, minds, ears, and spirits of people in the audience."
At the helm of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Roe oversees more than 70 concerts per season in 20 venues across New York City, as well as a host of education and community programs that help make classical music more accessible for every New Yorker. And through it all, Roe's guiding principle is to ensure "the audience is the focus of everything we do."
In this episode, we talk more about the Orchestra of St. Luke's current season — including the Carnegie Hall premiere of Florence Price’s Piano Quintet with Marc-André Hamelin and the third year of the ensemble's DeGaetano Composition Institute, where three emerging composers work with composer-mentor Anna Clyne on new pieces to be premiered by OSL.
Plus, Roe shares how reading during his daily commute supports his well-being, the inspiration he gets from the "wonderful crackle of anticipation" before a concert begins, and his favorite Manhattan restaurant when he's craving Basque cuisine.
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