Katherine Young Steele is the principal oboe of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, a position she has held since 2012. With the MSO, she has performed as soloist on several occasions and has frequently collaborated as a chamber musician. Of her performances of Richard Strauss’s oboe concerto with music director Edo de Waart, Steele was praised for her “engrossing performance…with a ringing, beautifully centered sound and elegant interpretive direction.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Also notably, Steele had the distinct opportunity of performing the first notes in a solo performance at the opening of the MSO’s new home, the Bradley Symphony Center, in January 2021.

Steele was principal oboe of The Florida Orchestra from 2007 – 2012, where she appeared frequently as soloist and collaborated on the orchestra’s multi-year cultural exchange with musicians in Havana, Cuba. She has appeared as guest principal oboe with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and the Sarasota Orchestra. She was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, and toured with the orchestra to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and twice to Carnegie Hall. She has also performed in the music festivals of Tanglewood, Spoleto USA, Banff, Eastern Music Festival, Music in the Mountains in Durango, Colorado, and with the National Repertory Orchestra.

Steele currently serves on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Concordia University Wisconsin, and has previously taught at the University of Tampa, St. Petersburg College, and the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. A native of Lancaster, Ohio, Steele holds a Bachelor of Music degree and the prestigious Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, as well as a Master of Music degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Her primary teachers include Richard Killmer, Robert Atherholt, and Donna Conaty. She resides in Glendale, Wisconsin, with her husband Jonathan and their two sons, Charlie and Jack.