Lisa Ryoo (pronounced as in kangaROO) is an oboist and teacher based in macomb, Illinois. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Iowa and teaches students from middle school through adult, in person and online.
Lisa teaches students to become independent musicians and their own best teachers. Her primary objective is to foster creative problem-solving skills in her students, not only in music but also in their everyday lives. By empowering them to become patient, lifelong teachers and learners, Lisa aims to equip her students with valuable life lessons and critical thinking strategies. Lessons cover tone, intonation, repertoire, and audition preparation, along with reed adjustment and reed making, a craft she considers one of the best teachers of patience an oboist can have.
Before relocating to Illinois, Lisa served as Artist Instructor of Oboe at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, for six years, and taught with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra’s Private Lesson Program in Davenport. Her students have placed at All-State and in young artist competitions, and her graduating seniors have earned oboe scholarships regardless of their major.
As a performer, Lisa has appeared with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra,Orchestra Iowa, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra, the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, and the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra. Lisa collaborates with her husband, saxophonist Eugene Ryoo, in their chamber ensemble, Emergence Duo. They performed the North American premiere of Three Country Dances, a work by Ignatius Sancho, and its arrangement by Althea Talbot-Howard, at the 53rd International Double Reed Society Conference in Flagstaff, Arizona. In December 2023, they showcased an original arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin BWV 1060R, transformed for oboe, saxophone, and piano, at the World Saxophone Congress in the Canary Islands. They have also premiered commissioned works by Jared Beu, Anish Raj Pandit, Stacy Garrop, and Jenni Watson. Lisa’s DMA recording project features oboe music by Althea Talbot-Howard. It will be released commercially in 2027.
Lisa believes music belongs to communities, not only to concert halls. During her doctoral studies she built programs for third-grade classrooms and for residents of local retirement and assisted living communities, and in 2018 she organized a benefit concert for Educate Haiti. She is also committed to sacred music, studied organ with Dr. Melanie Sigafoose, and served as interim Music Director at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Iowa City.
Lisa received her DMA from the University of Iowa, where she was Oboe Teaching Assistant, following a Master of Music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University Bloomington. She studied with Dr. Courtney Miller, Jaren Atherholt, Roger Roe, and Linda Strommen, and spent a semester in Vienna with Thomas Höniger of the Vienna Radio Symphony. She is an alumna of the Merit School of Music in Chicago.
At home, Lisa is happiest with her husband and son, at the organ, in the garden, baking, learning hand embroidery, and working on her Korean.
For more information about lessons, please visit the lessons page below.