Paraguayan/American oboist TAMARA BENITEZ WINSTON served as the acting English Horn/Oboe of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra from 2021-2024. As an alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, Tamara enjoys a busy orchestral career and has performed with some of the country’s top ensembles including the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, the New York City Ballet, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and The Utah Symphony. She is a founding member of the NYC based woodwind quintet, ConnectFive.

As a teaching artist, Tamara is passionate about sharing music with a wide range of audiences and promoting inclusivity in arts education. As part of her Ensemble Connect fellowship, Tamara created and performed numerous interactive performances for communities throughout New York and abroad. She formerly served on the oboe faculty at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College.

This past summer, she performed at the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Lakes Area Music Festival. During previous summers, she has attended Classical Tahoe, The Aspen Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival USA, National Symphony Orchestra Summer Institute, Brevard Music Center, and the Eastern Music Festival where she won the concerto competition performing the Kalliwoda Concertino.

Tamara holds a bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School and a master’s degree from Mannes School of Music. She has studied with Nathan Hughes and Elaine Douvas. Other primary teachers include Richard Dallessio, Jelena Dirks, and Linda Strommen.

Outside of music, Ms. Winston enjoys hot yoga, reading, cooking new dishes, and taking her rescue dog, Charlie, on fun adventures.