The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

The program opened with the regal overture to Handel's "Occasional Oratorio," heightened by a marvelous oboe solo of vibrant pathos.
   -Cecelia Porter, Washington Post, 12/04/06

    -Daniel Ginsburg, Washington Post, 10/25/06

Katherine Needleman's oboe solo was, as usual, of a rare quality.
    -Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun, 10/24/06

In (the Bach Concerto in C Minor for Oboe and Violin), principal oboist Katherine Needleman showed she has fine-tuned the art of letting sustained notes glimmer and grow to glorious heights.

    -Ceclia Porter, The Washington Post, 1/30/06

And thus, Segunda by Sibelius was magnificent. Temirkanov took advantage of the quality of his soloists and the good work of the string sections. The young oboe soloist is worth mentioning for the unequalled dose of sentiment she put into it.
    -Jorge de Persia, La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 10/27/05

Gunther Herbig, a frequent and welcome BSO guest, was on the podium at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, assuring an ease and cohesiveness of execution, not to mention refined taste. And the orchestra's exceptional principal oboist, Katherine Needleman, was the featured solo player, assuring an unpretentious burst of virtuosity, not to mention abundant musicality.

Needleman's delivery of Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C major was, in many ways, the evening's highlight. The purity, clarity and sweetness of her first notes filled the hall with a beguiling intimacy that lasted throughout the essentially lighthearted, but hardly lightweight, score.

Her phrasing had the kind of personality and coloring a great singer can bring to a Mozart aria, full of telling subtleties in tempo and dynamics.

The oboist cast a downright magical spell, which Herbig aided with his keen sense of balance and the ensemble enhanced with the transparency and elegance of its own playing.
    -Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun, 1/22/05

With startling agility, endless breaths, marvelously delineated dynamic shifts, and a prism of sonic colors, oboist Katherine Needleman turned the C major Oboe Concerto, RV.447, into a riveting three-act drama.
    -Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun, 4/24/04

The program began with Ottorino Respighi's "Gli Uccelli" -- better known, in English translation, as "The Birds." This is a luscious augmentation of five baroque miniatures, transcribed for modern orchestra with an unerring mixture of fancy and taste; the second movement, titled "The Dove," gave the orchestra's new principal oboe, Katherine Needleman, the opportunity to display her limpid and deliciously plaintive tone (does she ever need to breathe?).
    - Tim Page, The Washington Post, 10/6/03

There was some real magic going on up on that stage, especially in the second movement, The Dove, which enjoyed gossamer sounds from the strings and a drop-dead gorgeous solo from the BSO's new principal oboist, Katherine Needleman. (You can already tell she's going to be a boon for the orchestra.)
    -Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun, 10/4/03

Needleman defied at a million different turns her instrument's reputation as a bear. She is as nimble and virtuosic as they come, and her tone fools you into thinking that a sweet oboe sound is an easily found commodity.
    -Peter Dobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/19/03

...gorgeous tone...
    - Peter Dobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/19/02

...beautiful oboe playing...
    -Anthony Ritchie, Otago Daily Times, New Zealand, 8/10/02

With her succulent tone and arching phrases, Needleman was the evening's standout. Her second-movement colloquy with Copes was a model of serene civility -- a quality that grows more precious by the day.
    -Larry Fuchsberg, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11/27/01

(Soovin Kim) joined oboist Katherine Needleman in a performance that was framed by reasonable tempos but was urged forward by the expressive urgency of both soloists. The slow movement built sonorities and melodic lines that gave it a feeling of limitless expansiveness.
    -Daniel Webster, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/15/2002