Joseph Robinson, Oboe

"Following the intermission, the festival’s outstanding oboist, Joseph Robinson, blew the audience away with his performance of L’horlage de flore (The Flower Clock). This composition by Jean Francaix is based on Carl Linnaeus’ classification of flowers by the time of day they bloom. The oboe has a personality that ranges from ethereal to ebullient and has never been more brilliantly played than by Robinson."

Christopher Key, Entertainment News NW, July 2010

"Joe Robinson’s tone is elegant and refined and his control of dynamics phenomenal. ... [He] made this difficult quartet sound easy, especially the vertiginous passage of superfast sixteenth notes over the calm 6/8 of the strings in the final Rondeau."

Peter Perret, Classical Voice of North Carolina, 2010, regarding the Mozart Oboe Quartet

"Joseph Robinson, principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic, is a consummate artist imbued with a miraculous ability to turn a simple note into tonal bliss."

John McKay

"This was the kind of playing that guarantees the survival of live performance in the media age."

Justin Davidson, Newsday, 1995, regarding the "Don Juan" solo

"Joseph Robinson, the principal oboist, deserves a lot of the credit for leading the woodwind section so admirably. Each of his solos set a standard for the whole section to sustain and it was around his caressing oboe tone that the section established an extraordinary balance."

San Francisco critic

"I was positively blown away with the sensuous music produced by the veteran principal oboist Joseph Robinson."

Paul Hertelendy, USA Today

"Had Robinson achieved the degree of success in government as he has in musical performance, no doubt he would have his own Cabinet department, or perhaps a third party of idealists cheering him on the hustings. That is to say, his oboe playing leaves no room for improvement, only for dreams."

Tallahassee critic, following a 1984 performance of the Vaughan-Williams Concerto

"Joseph Robinson's performance of the solo part was a model of dedication and virtuosity"

Donal Henahan, of the New York Philharmonic's performance of the George Rochberg Oboe Concerto, New York Times, May 19, 1985

"In the second movement of the Brahams, oboist Joseph Robinson even threatened to upstage [Anne Sophie Mutter], and in the slow movemenet of Tchaikovsky's Symphony #4, he laid a thread of platinum sound across the velvet cushion of the Philharmonic's strings."

Justin Davidson, Newsday, 1996, regarding a performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto

"The orchestra's principal oboist, Joseph Robinson, gave an exquisite solo performance"

James Oestreich, New York Times, Dec. 23, 1989

"Today's Philharmonic has three glories.  One is some of its principal players; oboist Joseph Robinson and concertmaster Glenn Dicterow were among last night's stars."

Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe