Paraguayan/American oboist TAMARA BENITEZ WINSTON is the recently appointed English Horn/Oboe of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. As a recent alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, Tamara enjoys a busy orchestral career and performs regularly with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York City Ballet, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and the Montclair Orchestra. She is a founding member of the NYC based woodwind quintet, ConnectFive.

As a teaching artist, Tamara is passionate about sharing music with a wide range of audiences and promoting inclusivity in arts education. She is the Associate Director of MusicAlly, an organization that serves children in need of art and connection, by providing video music lessons with the nation’s best music teachers, and creating an online community of peers. As part of her Ensemble Connect fellowship, Tamara created and performed numerous interactive performances for communities throughout New York and abroad. She is on the oboe faculty at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College.

This past summer, she was honored to be named the Oboe Fellow at the Classical Tahoe music festival. During previous summers, she has attended The Aspen Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival USA, National Symphony Orchestra Summer Institute, Brevard Music Center, and the Eastern Music Festival where she won the 2013 concerto competition performing the Kalliwoda Concertino.

Tamara holds a bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School and a master’s degree from Mannes School of Music. She has studied with Nathan Hughes and Elaine Douvas. Other primary teachers include Richard Dallessio, Jelena Dirks, and Linda Strommen.

Outside of music, Ms. Winston enjoys hot yoga, cooking lavish meals using only her crockpot, and taking her rescue dog, Charlie, on fun adventures.