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Lydia Van Dreel
(541) 346-3776
vandreel@uoregon.edu

Lydia Van Dreel joined the University of Oregon music faculty as assistant professor of horn in 2006. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied with William Purvis and Douglas Hill.

Van Dreel has extensive performing experience as an orchestral and chamber musician, and as a soloist. She is a member of QUADRE–The Voice of Four Horns, a California-based group of four solo French horn artists who provide concert presentations, interactive educational outreach, lectures, and workshops across North America. Van Dreel also performs regularly as a member of the Eugene Symphony, the Oregon Mozart Players, the Oregon Wind Quintet, the Oregon Brass Quintet, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra. She is frequently called to join the ranks of orchestras across the country, such as the Oregon Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, and the Florida West Coast Symphony.

Before coming to Oregon, Van Dreel held a ten year tenure as co-principal horn of the Florida West Coast Symphony and Florida Wind Quintet in Sarasota, Florida. She has also worked extensively as an educator, coaching in the youth orchestra of the Florida West Coast Symphony, working with student composers at New College of Florida, teaching in the summer programs at the University of Oregon, and coaching chamber music in Florida and Oregon. She participates in many outreach activities with the Colorado Music Festival, including performances with the "Classically Kids" series and speaking at the popular pre-concert "Talks Under the Tent" lecture series.

Recent solo performances include concerto engagements with the Florida West Coast Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Oregon Mozart Players, the University of Oregon Symphony, and the Eugene Symphonic Band. In 2003 Van Dreel was a winner in the professional division of the American Horn Competition and a winner in the Tilden Competition, sponsored by the National Arts Club in New York City.

Van Dreel has worked as a freelance musician in the greater New York City area, performing with numerous orchestras, Broadway shows, show tours, opera productions, and contemporary music groups. She has participated in the summer festivals of Spoleto (Charleston & Italy), Kent/Blossom (Ohio), AIMS (Graz, Austria) and Sarasota Music Festival. Van Dreel was a permanent substitute with the New World Symphony Orchestra from 1993-94. She has recorded for the BUZZ record label with the eclectic new music group, DaDaDah.