Nicholas Urmaza

Nicholas Urmaza is from San Diego and is a graduating senior at Canyon Hills High School. He is a passionate oboist, and classical musician. This is his fifth year as a member of the San Diego Youth Symphony, where he is the principal oboist of the most advanced group, Symphony Orchestra. Nicholas has also performed with numerous honor groups including the California All-State Golden State Band, where he was the principal oboist in 2024, 2025 and 2026. He has also performed with All-Southern, CODA and SDUSD honor band and orchestras in addition to Cuyamaca College’s Wind Ensemble. Nicholas attended oboe intensives at Interlochen and Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute where he worked with master teachers over the summer. In the summer of 2025, Nicholas was selected as a High School Ambassador where he took part in a summer internship at the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. 

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Nicholas currently studies oboe with Sarah Skuster, principal oboist of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. After high school, Nicholas will be attending the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington where he will study Oboe Performance with Linda Strommen. In the future, he hopes to pursue music professionally. Outside of playing oboe, Nicholas is a pianist who has performed in his high school’s musicals the past four years. He is also an active leader in his school’s marching band, teaching basic percussion. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, traveling and learning new geography facts.

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