Faculty Werner Herbers     Werner Herbers has been principal oboist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for thirty five years. As a classical soloist he has appeared with conductors such as Haitink, Harnoncourt, Berio, Leitner, De Waart, Vonk and Chailly. As a jazz oboist he performed with Wynton Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw.     Until the group disbanded in 1988, Herbers was also first oboist in the Netherlands Wind Ensemble for over 25 years, many of them in his additional capacity as Joint Artistic Director. With this group he undertook many successful tours all over Europe, Japan, Australia and the United States, appearing in many cities including New York (Carnegie and Alice Tully), Boston, Chicago, Washington, San Fransisco and Los Angeles.     In 1990 Herbers founded a new group, the Ebony Band. This group, consisting of members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, has specialised on forgotten and unknown music from the interbellum. With this repertoire the Ebony Band has appeared in New York, Toronto, Berlin, Vienna, Prague and Paris. Several of the ensemble’s recordings (Wolpe/ Schulhoff/ Revueltas) have been received with highly acclaimed international awards.     Unusual programming and unconventional stage manner, hallmarks of the former Netherlands Wind Ensemble, also stamp the character of the Ebony Band.     Many concerts have been given in collaboration with actors, dancers and comedians or with the addition of film and slide projections. The Band performed several semi-staged opera’s and musical radio plays, all from the 1920s and 30s.     The extended Ebony (Big) Band, conducted by Gunther Schuller and Werner Herbers, has also performed a number of special jazz or jazz-influenced concerts. As a conductor Herbers has also appeared in New York City in a program at the 92ndY (‘Stefan Wolpe and Contemporaries’) and with the German ensembles Oriol and Recherche in Berlin, Freiburg and Vienna. In Amsterdam Herbers led the world famous Dutch jazz and pop band The Metropole Orchestra in a program with music by Duke Ellington, Robert Graettinger and Kurt Weill.     For many years, Werner Herbers has been professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He also worked as a coach at the Pacific Music Festival (Sapporo/Japan).