Overview
Music Theory
Andréa E. Banke recently retired as principal oboe with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and solo oboe with the Lieurance Woodwind Quintet after a career-ending nerve injury in 2019. After 15 years as professor of oboe at Wichita State University, she now serves as assistant professor of theory and instructor of chamber music and literature. She is also director of the Master of Arts in arts leadership and management degree program.
In 2020, she was selected as an inaugural faculty lead to help create the Widener Global Leaders Program, a multidisciplinary initiative to train women in business, communication, and music. She has additional leadership training from the Kansas Leadership Center. Banke received the Micky and Pete Armstrong Excellence in Teaching Award in 2018 and 2025 and the Anita Jones Fine Arts Fellowship in 2020.
With more than 25 years of experience as an orchestral and chamber musician, she believes music is for everyone—no exceptions. From 1997 to 2018, she performed more than 600 recitals, educational concerts, and outreach classes as solo oboist of the Dakota Wind Quintet and the Lieurance Woodwind Quintet, appearing in venues ranging from a Sioux Indian powwow to a high-security Nebraska prison.
The Wichita Eagle has praised her playing as “lush,” “exquisite,” and marked by “impeccable style and execution.” Before coming to Kansas, she was principal oboe of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in New York. An active chamber musician, she has performed as guest principal oboe with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and has appeared with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Heidelberg Opera Schlossfestspiele in Germany, and Camerata Philharmonica Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
Bachelor of Music in oboe performance - Eastman School of Music
Master of Music in oboe performance - University of Minnesota