Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida
Principal Oboe
Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida has been Principal Oboe of the Pittsburgh Symphony since 1991. For two years prior to this she was Associate Principal Oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Since joining the Pittsburgh Symphony Ms. DeAlmeida has been featured as a soloist in concertos by Bach, Haydn, Vaughan-Williams, Strauss, and Mozart and has collaborated as soloist with Pinchas Zukerman, Andres Cardenes, and Vladimir Spivakov. In 1993 she premiered and recorded a commissioned concerto by Leonardo Balada with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Lorin Maazel for New World Records. Ms. DeAlmeida premiered another concerto in February 2006 comissioned for her by the Pittsburgh Symphony entitled “The Clearing” by composer Lucas Richman.

Ms. DeAlmeida is an avid chamber musician. Each summer since 2002 she has performed and taught as a faculty member of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. Several of her performances there have been chosen to be broadcast nationally on NPR’s ‘Performance Today'.
In November 2002, Ms. DeAlmeida’s first solo CD was released on the Boston Records label. Classic Discoveries for Oboe was hailed by American Record Guide as “a masterly recording… Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida is simply one of the finest exponents of the instrument anywhere.” Her second solo CD entitled Mist Over the Lake on the Crystal Record label was released in 2006 to rave reviews: “Ms. DeAlmeida is hands down one of the best players in the world…” She can also be heard on Crystal Records’ recording of Sir Andre Previn’s Sonata for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano with Sir Andre Previn.

Ms. DeAlmeida is a faculty member of Carnegie Mellon University and is the Coordinator of the Woodwind Department there. She has also been a faculty member of the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland. She has been invited to teach masterclasses in the United States, Korea, Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. In 2003, Ms. DeAlmeida was featured on national television on the CBS “Early Show” in a story relating to the oboe and its remarkable health benefits for asthma sufferers.

Ms. DeAlmeida received the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan, studying with Arno Marriotti, and the Master of Music degree from Temple University, as a student of Richard Woodhams.

Cynthia and her husband, José, live in Pittsburgh with their children Veronica and Danny, and their standard poodle “Bones”.