Fredric T. Cohen is professor of music at the University of  Massachusetts in Amherst. An active performer as well as teacher, Mr. Cohen recently retired after 32 seasons as principal oboist with the Springfield(MA) Symphony. He performs regularly with the  Avanti wind quintet, a faculty chamber music ensemble in residence at the University and is a recitalist and clinician. He has been the resident conductor and coordinator of orchestral activities at the University and is the conductor of the orchestra and head of the woodwind program at Greenwood Music Camp. He has taught oboe, coached chamber music, and conducted Wind Ensembles at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston University, and the Great Woods Festival. He can be heard on recordings issued by Telarc, Gasparo, Northeastern, Gunmar, BEEP, and Opus One Records. In addition, Mr. Cohen has toured in Europe and the United States with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. As soloist, he has premiered concertos by Salvatore Macchia (with the Springfield Symphony), Robert Nieske, Hsueh Yung Shen,Christopher Morris, and Ivan Tcherepnin. He has been a guest artist with such ensembles as the Muir Quartet, The Massachusetts Chamber Players, The Arcadia Players, Boston Baroque, and has performed at the Connecticut Early Music Festival, the Mohawk Trails concerts, Musicorda, and many other festivals. He was a featured artist in the British Double Reed Society's oboe festival at Christ Church College in Canterbury, England and was a featured artist at the 1996 International Double Reed Society's conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In June of 2001, Mr. Cohen went to England where he was the oboe soloist with the Folkestone and Hythe Orchestra performing the Concerto for Oboe by Mozart. He returned to England in August 2002 to be in residence at the Dartington International Summer School where he gave the oboe master class and performed chamber music.