Oswald Lehnert

Professor of Violin

Email: Oswald.Lehnert@colorado.edu
Office Location: Room 105, Macky Auditorium
Office Phone: 303-492-7400
Mailing Address: 301 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0301

Oswald Lehnert is Professor of Violin at the University of Colorado and an active solo and chamber music performer.  He served as Music Director and Conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra for 24 years and founded the famed Pablo Casals Trio, the trio named by Casals himself.

Professor Lehnert’s prizes in national and international competitions include the 1960 Murat Award, the Certificate of Honor at the 1962 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and an invitation to study privately with Joseph Szigeti in Switzerland.

The founder of the Windsor Trio and the Hillingdon String Quartet, Lehnert has performed with Rudolf Serkin’s Marlboro Festival, Leonard Bernstein’s French-American Festival, Pablo Casals at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and with the Alexander Schneider Chamber Ensemble at the Mozart Festival in Philharmonic Hall.

Lehnert made his debut at the age of 15 with the Chicago Symphony and has since pursued special studies at the Chicago Musical College, the Juilliard School of Music with Ivan Galamian, and at the University of Connecticut.  He served for 4 years in Special Services at West Point U.S. Military Academy.  He has held full scholarships at the Chicago Musical College, Meadowmount, Interlochen Nation Music Camp and Juilliard.  Lehnert has toured Europe, Southeast Asia, and the United States as a member of the Lehnert Solo/Duo with his wife, pianist Doris Pridonoff Lehnert.

Professor Lehnert was chairman of the string department at the Hartford Conservatory of Music and head of the University of Connecticut string department before joining the University of Colorado Music faculty in 1968.  He is Music Director and Conductor of Rocky Mountain Festival Orchestra and Chorus at Pingree Park.  Lehnert developed “Operation Vibrato,” an outreach program which pairs University of Colorado music students with underprivileged youth in conjunction with the Third Way Center of Denver.