Oboist Barbara LaFitte is a familiar face on the Boston music scene. She was the principal oboist in the Boston Ballet Orchestra, held the English Horn position in the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra from 1994-2020, where she worked with John Williams and Keith Lockhart. She was a member of the cutting-edge Boston Modern Orchestra Project, whose recording catalog contains more than 100 new works. For many years, she was the principal oboist in the Boston Classical Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and performed regularly with Emmanuel Music in the Bach Cantata series. She can be heard on two recordings nominated for Grammy Awards: Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s recording of Stephen Mackey’s Dreamhouse, and Danilo Perez’s highly acclaimed jazz recording, Providencia. LaFitte is also the oboist on the theme music for the PBS program, Frontline.

Her summer activities have included performing at the Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto Festival dei Due Monde, Tanglewood Music Center, Bay Chamber Concert Series, Rockport Music Festival, Monadnock Music Festival, and in 2015, Jean-Luc Fillon’s Oboe Academy for Improvisation in La Roche Guyon, France. In 2022, she was named the Copland Chamber Music Librarian for the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA. She recently returned from a retreat in Vermont, hosted by Eugene Friesen and Kenny Werner, Joy in Marlboro, during the summer of 2024.

Since 1994, LaFitte has been professor on the faculty of Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she developed an innovative oboe studio, and created classes in Efficient Practicing, Audition Workshop, and Phrasing. She coached contemporary chamber ensembles and taught Woodwind Pedagogy at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. LaFitte presents masterclasses about topics such as circular breathing, audition preparation, Nicolas Slonimsky, and more.