Biography
Erin Hannigan is currently the Principal Oboe of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Adjunct Associate Professor of Oboe at Southern Methodist University. She will join the faculty of the Shepherd School of Music as Professor of Oboe in the fall of 2025.
Before coming to Dallas, she was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic from 1994 to 2001 and served as a faculty member at the Eastman School of Music. She has been guest Principal Oboist with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony and the St. Louis Symphony. She spends the summer months performing and teaching at summer festivals, including The Strings Festival, Mainly Mozart, National Youth Orchestra (NYO), the Grand Teton Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, National Orchestral Institute, the Festival-Institute at Round Top and the Gstaad Menuhin Festival (Switzerland).
Hannigan has recorded three CDs on the Crystal Records label, and also recorded Jeremy Gill’s Serenada Concertante, a piece she commissioned and premiered with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
In addition to her orchestral work, Hannigan is known for her contributions to the community as co-founder of the nonprofit Artists for Animals. She has organized the annual “Concert for Kindness” events in Dallas to support young artists’ involvement in giving back to their communities. The “Concert for Kindness” has raised more than $450,000 for animal rescue organizations. She earned the Ford Award for Excellence in Community Service in 2018, an honor awarded annually to five musicians through the League of American Orchestras and the Ford Motor Company.
Hannigan is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with James Caldwell. She received her master’s degree, the prestigious Performer’s Certificate, and the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Eastman School of Music, where she was a student of Richard Killmer.
