Oboe and English Horn
A native of Normal, Illinois, Kristine Mertens switched from French horn to oboe in grade school and has not looked back. Kristine received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Northern Illinois University. She has studied oboe with Jill West, Judith Zunamon Lewis, Ricardo Castenada, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra member Grover Schiltz. Kristine was the principal oboist in the Illinois Valley Philharmonic Orchestra in LaSalle, Illinois, for four years, and she spent a summer in residence with the Missouri Symphony in Columbia, Missouri. She has also performed with the Fox Valley Symphony, the Illinois Philharmonic, and the Heartland Philharmonic.
Kristine joined the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2004, when she also assumed her new position as a general music teacher in the Sycamore School District. She teaches music education majors as an adjunct faculty member at Northern Illinois University, and she also continues to teach private lessons to school-age oboe students in the DeKalb-Sycamore area.
