Hollis Ulaky has retired after 50 years as Principal Oboist of the Charlotte Symphony. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied with Thomas Fay and James Gorton. Before joining the CSO, Hollis was principal oboist in the Wheeling Symphony and Opera Festival Orchestra in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She has performed chamber music at the Sarasota Music Festival, the Charles Ives Center for the Performing Arts, and at Piccolo Spoleto. As a founding member of the chamber music group Rhodora, Hollis continues to perform recitals throughout the southeast. She has given premieres of works written for oboe and organ, in addition to chamber works for oboe, bassoon and piano at the IDRS conference in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Hollis has been featured in Today’s Charlotte Woman Magazine, The Charlotte Observer, and was voted Best Female Instrumentalist in 2004 by Charlotte Magazine.
An avid educator, Hollis served on the faculties of Winthrop University and Queens University of Charlotte and has served as a member of the faculty of Cannon Music Camp at Appalachian University as well as woodwind coach for the Youth Symphony of the Carolinas.