W. Harold Oliver

Horn
Lincoln Symphony Orchestra

W. Harold Oliver has served as Fourth Horn with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra (Nebraska) for 26 years and is currently filling a one-year appointment as Third Horn. Harold previously served as Principal Horn and featured soloist for 22 years with United States Air Force Bands in Virginia, Europe, and Nebraska from 1984-2006.

A native of Paducah and Benton, Kentucky, Harold received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from Murray State University (KY) in 1978 and his Master of Music degree in Horn Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1980. While in Illinois, he performed as a member of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, the Danville Symphony Orchestra, the Decatur-Milliken Symphony Orchestra, and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in addition to serving as the Horn Instructor for the Illinois Summer Youth Music Camp from 1979-1983.

Harold's service in Air Force bands included performing with the Concert Band, Brass and Woodwind Quintets, and as featured soloist on numerous occasions. Harold was also involved in almost everything related to computers with the bands including desktop publishing of publicity materials, music library databases, operations correspondence, computer maintenance, and music publishing. He also transcribed dozens of works for concert band, brass quintet, woodwind quintet, and wind ensemble.

During and after his career in the Air Force, Harold has been a clinician for the Sibelius music publishing software company Avid. Since his retirement from the Air Force in 2006, he has been employed with the United States Strategic Command located at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska as an IT Service Desk Lead and currently oversees Quality Assurance for the Service Desk.