Aubree Oliverson’s Meteoric Career Rise Took a Lot of Work

Paul Hodgins
12 hours ago
5 min read

The concert violinist found fame early, but her success came from hard work and self-promotion.

Concert violinist Aubree Oliverson. Photo courtesy of Pacific Symphony/Nick Bayless

Impressive Women in the Arts Series | A quick scroll through AI summaries tells the tale. A recent study of the world’s 100 top orchestras found that only 5% of pieces played were written by women composers. Fifty-one percent of visual artists in America are women, yet they are underrepresented in major exhibitions, galleries and museum collections. In some areas of the performing arts, such as dance, women make up a majority (87%), while in others, like music, the representation is roughly equal (49-51%). Still, in certain roles like music production and direction, men outnumber women by a large margin.

By the numbers, the situation still seems grim but Culture OC editors have noticed that some extraordinary women artists are set to be showcased in Orange County. That’s why this season, we’re dedicating a series to shining a light on visionary new voices who give us hope for the future.

Concert violinist Aubree Oliverson, who will perform Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto with Pacific Symphony Jan. 15-17, made her solo debut with the Utah Symphony at 11. It opened the door to a career for the Utah native that has been growing strong for well over a decade. But Oliverson, now 27, hadn’t made up her mind about classical music until the day before her debut as a concert soloist.

“I hadn’t set my life plan until that moment,” Oliverson said. “It was after the first rehearsal with them that (I decided) that’s what I wanted to do. It was just the feeling of playing the piece the way it should be played with the full orchestra – a feeling I’d never felt before. I felt like I belonged there. There are so many times I feel awkward in public, like speaking publicly, but playing in front of an audience is where I feel at home.”

Oliverson rapidly racked up some impressive achievements, including her Carnegie Hall Weill Hall recital debut at age 12 as winner of the American Protégé International Strings Competition, several featured performances on NPR’s hit radio show “From The Top,” a 2016 National YoungArts Foundation Award, and winning the 2016 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, the highest honor the U.S. government can bestow on a high school student.

But Oliverson said her path to success wasn’t an easy one. “It was mostly youth competitions, and I did quite a few of those. But it’s really been only fairly recently that I’ve played (a lot of) concerts, maybe the last five or six years. And, of course, I learned a lot of lessons the hard way. How to tune, how to bow, so many things like that. And even just how to set your tempo.”

Oliverson said she has no favorites or preferences when it comes to composers, styles or musical eras. “I’ve always just liked anything that I can connect to emotionally. Anything written from the heart that I can express myself or connect with people. Sometimes I play a piece that’s played all the time. Others are obscure. I play what I like.”

Aubree Oliverson performs Danse Espagnole by Manuel de Falla.

Years of hard work and promoting herself

Since her student days, Oliverson distinguished herself not only with her technique and obvious musical abilities, but her work ethic as well. At the prestigious Colburn School in Los Angeles, where she spent several of her teen years, she quickly became known as a can-do musician who didn’t sit around waiting for others to help her start a career.

“I think when I first got there I had this idea in my head at 15 years old that my career would just take off. But I soon realized I had to create my own concerts. I developed a relationship with several local orchestras. I created a lot of concerto opportunities because of that. The (Colburn) school took notice that I was out there trying to get my own concerts.” Oliverson signed with the school’s in-house management for artists when she was 20. It got her to the next level, but she continued to do much of the career-building work herself. “You still have to create your own concert opportunities and other things, even with a manager.”

At this intermediate stage of her career, Oliverson was able to arrange auditions with conductors. Those opportunities, which usually mean playing without an orchestra in an empty hall for one person – the prospective conductor – can be stressful, Oliverson said.

“I’m not a huge fan (of the process). I love playing for people and connecting with the audience and interacting with the other musicians onstage. There’s this energy transfer among musicians, and when you take that away it's really difficult to manufacture the same effect.”

Oliverson learned to take conductors’ rejections in stride. “Some like you and some don't.

I remember one time I had a couple of auditions back to back – the Beethoven Violin Concerto. “One conductor said, ‘You’re much too romantic,’ the other said, ‘You’re not romantic enough.’” She chuckled. “That kind of liberated me a little bit.”

Oliverson is familiar with Pacific Symphony’s two well-respected conductors, Music Director Laureate Carl St.Clair and Music Director Designate Alexander Shelley, who will conduct the Korngold concerto with Pacific Symphony.

“Carl St.Clair has been a huge help in my career. I’m playing with him next week in Charleston. I love working with him.

“And I actually sat in an orchestra that Alexander Shelley conducted at the Aspen Music Festival. I was 16. I hope he doesn't remember this. I loved his conducting, and I went up to him afterwards to get his email, but in an awkward kind of teenage way.” Shelley wasn’t put off by Oliverson’s fangirl approach. “He was very nice about it,” she recalled, laughing.

Finally, a more balanced life

Despite its flashy beginnings, Oliverson said her career arc has taken longer than she anticipated. Her website shows a busy concert career on both sides of the Atlantic, but it took her years, and considerable sacrifice, to get to a place where she feels that she’s living up to her potential.

“It has taken me longer than I imagined it would as a child. I had all these grandiose dreams about how my career would take off. It is taking off, but it took longer than I wanted it to. (It was) a lot more work and a lot more tears and loneliness and self motivation than I’d imagined. Nobody’s watching how much you practice. And (I made) social sacrifices. I hardly hung out with friends in high school or middle school.”

Oliverson is trying to lead a more balanced life now. She feels confident enough to take vacations, and she has started a surprising hobby for a concert violinist: skiing.

“I love it! I never skied as a child but found a love of skiing in the last few years. I’m not very good at it but I'm getting better.”

Oliverson is now spending more time with family and friends, too. “I’m being more intentional about it than I had been. I’m learning to step away from my career a bit to give myself a break.”