Chris Wheeler is an oboist based in the mid-Michigan area and the oboe instructor at FIM Flint School of Performing Arts. He completed Master’s degrees in oboe performance and chamber music, studying with Nancy Ambrose King at the University of Michigan and Allan Vogel – former principal oboe of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – at the California Institute of Arts (CalArts) for his Bachelor of Fine Arts in oboe performance.

He performs regularly with the Michigan Philharmonic and Adrian Symphony, and subbing with numerous orchestras in Lansing, Flint, Ann Arbor, and Southwest Michigan. He is an active chamber musician and founding member of the Pure Winds woodwind quintet. An avid teacher, Chris is Lecturer of Oboe at the University of Michigan-Flint, Adjunct Instructor of Oboe at Hillsdale College, and maintains a studio of students. He works as an adjudicator, oboe clinician, and chamber music coach.

Raised in rural Michigan, Chris has been surrounded by music for as long as he can remember. He started his musical journey at the age of five with piano lessons, and in 6th grade, a funny instrument called the oboe entered the picture by a chance encounter. A summer session at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp was the catalyst in deciding to pursue music as a career. Though classically trained, Chris’ other musical interests lie in expanding the boundaries and genres of his musical influences via his own original compositions and songs. He recorded and released an album of original compositions and songs, “Day by Day.”