Hilary Hobbs currently teaches at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio as an Adjunct Instructor of Music and she served as Principal Oboe of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra for the 2023-2024 season. She graduated in May 2023 with her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she studied with Andrew Adelson, Second Oboe and English Horn of the New Jersey Symphony. She earned both her Master of Music (2019) and Bachelor of Music (2017) degrees in Oboe Performance at The Ohio State University, studying under Robert Sorton, former Assistant Principal Oboe of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Other influential teachers include Joshua Lauretig (2024 Lake George Music Festival), Kevin Pearl (2024 Festival Napa Valley), Tim Gocklin (2023 Akropolis Chamber Music Institute), Alex Klein and Robert Atherholt (2022 Atlantic Music Festival), Robert Walters (2021 Hidden Valley Music Seminar), Peter Cooper and Jason Lichtenwalter, (2019 Rocky Ridge Young Artist Seminar), and Guido Ghetti, (2018 International Music Mastercourses Festival in Italy). Additionally, Hilary has performed in master classes for Nathan Hughes, Dwight Parry, Jeffrey Rathbun, Robert Walters, David Ottensamer, Anthony McGill, Robert Atherholt, Alex Klein, Trevor Mowry, Angelina Gadeliya, the Akropolis Reed Quintet and Elizabeth Starr Masoudnia.

In both the Spring and Fall semesters of 2022, Hilary’s chamber group won the Rutgers Chamber Music Competition. Hilary participated in the Fresh Inc. Festival in 2021, and in 2018, she was invited to perform at the International Double Reed Society (IDRS) conference in Granada, Spain with the Buckeye Double Reed Ensemble. Her woodwind quartet was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2019 Rocky Ridge Seminar Chamber Music Competition, and she won the annual Ohio State University School of Music’s Concerto Competition in 2018.

Hilary served as principal oboe in the Brook Orchestra for the 2022-2023 season, second oboe/English horn for the 2021-2022 season and as principal oboe for the South Orange Symphony in Spring 2023. She performed with various orchestras including the Dayton Philharmonic, Westerville Symphony, Huntington Symphony, Monmouth Symphony Orchestra and Bloomfield Symphony Orchestra. Hilary has enjoyed performing in numerous local and university ensembles, pit orchestras and churches in both Ohio and New Jersey. She maintains her own reed making business and private lessons studio based in Grove City, OH.