A versatile musician, Hilary Stavros Ives is equally at home in an orchestral hall, an opera or musical pit, and performing on stage. Transitioning easily from oboe to cor anglais to violin, she also performs on a variety of Renaissance recorders and shawms. Originally from Utah, she received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Iowa in 2011 and finished a Master of Music in Orchestral Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, Wales, UK in 2017.
Before moving to the UK, she worked extensively with the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah as a musician, collaborative artist, and on-stage performer. Shows included: Les Misérables (2012) and South Pacific (2015), as well as incidental music for Twelfth Night and Sherlock Holmes (2014). Her talents were most on display during the summer season's The Greenshow, a free nightly pre-show with live music, dancing, and storytelling.
As part of the Royal Welsh College's Orchestral Performance course, she regularly participated in side-by-side schemes with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. During her time with the College, she performed with RWCMD Symphony Orchestra at St David's Hall in Cardiff, including Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in November 2015, as principal oboe in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade in June 2016, Dvořák's Symphony No. 8 in November 2016 and Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 in June 2017. She also worked on the College's March 2016 production of Mozart's much-loved Marriage of Figaro, leading the woodwind section as principal oboe. She's also performed with the Royal Welsh College's Chamber Orchestra on both oboe and cor anglais.
An avid chamber musician, she also championed the music of Welsh composers with her quintet, Melys Winds. They had the privilege of performing Peter Reynolds' Silver Apples of the Moon at his memorial concert in March 2017. They also performed at an recital celebrating Welsh chamber music at the College in June 2017, a 2017 University of South Wales graduation ceremony, and a January 2018 concert for the Lampeter (Wales) Music Club. Though Melys Winds has since disbanded, she loves chamber music and continues to play with friends and colleagues when she can.
Hilary currently freelances throughout South Wales, and also teaches woodwinds at Cardiff Steiner School. She holds the position of second oboe and cor anglais with the City of Cardiff Symphony Orchestra, as well as Gwent Chamber Orchestra. She has performed as a dep musician with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, St Woolos Sinfonia, and Orchestra De Cymru.
If you would like to hire her as a performer, please use the contact form. For details of upcoming performances, please see the “Coming Up” section for more information.
Photo: Justin Caveill Photography
