University of Nebraska–Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music alumnus Richard Svoboda (B.M.E. 1978) is one of eight alumni named to the 2022 class of Alumni Masters by the Nebraska Alumni Association.
Svoboda will be on campus working with students in the Glenn Korff School of Music March 31-April 1 and will be honored at the Nebraska Medallion Dinner on April 1.
Since 1964, more than 400 alumni have participated in the Alumni Masters. Selection of the Alumni Masters is competitive. Candidates are alumni who have shown great promise, success and leadership in their fields.
Svoboda is the principal bassoonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, both positions he has held since 1989. He is currently on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, the Tanglewood Music Center and the Sarasota Music Festival, and has given master classes throughout the world. Prior to his appointment to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he performed for 10 seasons as principal bassoonist of the Jacksonville (Florida) Symphony.
Svoboda is an active chamber music collaborator, orchestral soloist and recitalist, and has to his credit more than 30 recordings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Chamber Players, including on the soundtracks to “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.”
In a 2018 profile of Svoboda in our Hixson-Lied College supplemental publication on alumni, Svoboda said: “I am basically living a dream, doing what I always wanted to do, but at a level that is truly rewarding in every way,” he said. “But also it’s just the people and the conductors and the performances and being in an environment where excellence matters and is evidenced by everything and everyone that you see on stage and offstage. It’s just a different place.”