From Renaissance polyphony to 21st-century compositions, oboist Fiona Last is always seeking out new instruments to play and new musical idioms through which to express herself. Her interest in early instruments stems from the belief that we all seek to mine the most potential possible from the music that we play, and that understanding a musical style through the instrument for which it was written and vice-versa can bring a special kind of life to music-making. 

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This season Fiona is serving as principal oboe for the English Touring Opera's autumn tour, performing Judith Weir's Blond Eckbert, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden, and the period-instrument Do Not Take My Story For A Fairy Tale, a staged arrangement of works by CPE Bach, Martines, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert. She will also be playing in performances of The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Fiona has previously performed with John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, The Academy of Ancient Music, The Gabrieli Consort & Players, Oxford Bach Soloists, The City Musick, The Hanover Band, The Handel + Haydn Society, Piffaro: The Renaissance Band, Opera Philadelphia, Tempesta di Mare, Washington National Cathedral, Staunton Music Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, and at Les Jardins du William Christie in Thiré, France. In 2018 she was a participant in The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s “Experience” scheme. 

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Fiona can be heard on I Fagiolini's world-premiere recording of Orazio Benevoli's Missa Benevola for CORO, "Telemann: The Concerti-en-Suite" with Tempesta di Mare for Chandos, and as principal oboe on the first recording of Reena Esmail‘s This Love Between Us with David Hill and the Yale Schola Cantorum for Hyperion Records.

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She has given oboe masterclasses at the University of Madison, Wisconsin, The University of North Colorado, Greeley, and at King Edward VI School in Southampton, England, and was a teaching fellow for a partnership between the S’Cool Sounds program and the Washington Heights Choir School, where she taught recorder.  She has also taught oboe at the undergraduate level at Yale University, and maintains a private studio.

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Fiona has a Master’s degree in Historical Performance from The Juilliard School. She also received MM and BM degrees in Oboe Performance from the Yale School of Music and Temple University respectively, and a BA in Arabic & Ethnomusicology from The School of Oriental and African Studies in London, during which time she spent a year in Syria studying at the University of Damascus. She is currently based in London.