Dr. Paul Chinen currently serves as Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of Nevada, Las  Vegas (UNLV), where he maintains an active career as a performer and educator. He is a  founding member of Cirrus Blue, a contemporary woodwind quintet dedicated to the  performance and promotion of new music. At UNLV, he teaches oboe, chamber music,  woodwind ensemble, and courses in the general education curriculum. 

He currently serves as Second Oboe with Orchestra Iowa in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Prior to joining  the faculty at UNLV, he served as Assistant Professor of Oboe at Western Illinois University. His  previous orchestral appointments include Principal Oboe of the Great Falls Symphony, Associate  Principal Oboe of the Helena Symphony, and Second Oboe/English Horn with Florida Grand Opera and the Palm Beach Symphony. He has also performed with the Des Moines Opera  Orchestra, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Billings Symphony Orchestra, Greenville Symphony,  Miami City Ballet, South Florida Symphony, and New World Symphony. 

An active soloist, Dr. Chinen gave the world premiere of Robert W. Smith’s Cosmic Harmonies with the WIU Wind Ensemble in February 2023. He has appeared as a guest soloist with the  Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra performing Jean Françaix’s L’Horloge de Flore (Flower  Clock) and has also been featured as a soloist with the Great Falls Symphony and the Lynn  Conservatory Philharmonia. His recording credits include performances as Principal Oboe on  multiple NAXOS releases, including Gottsch: Sunset/Princess Yurievskaya with the South  Florida Symphony and Gershwin, Tower, Piston, Harbison: Orchestral Works with the National  Orchestral Institute Philharmonic. Dr. Chinen has presented and performed at conferences  including the International Double Reed Society (IDRS) Conference, College Music Society  Conference, and North American Saxophone Alliance Conference, among others. In 2025, he  served as a judge for the Gillet-Hugo Fox Oboe Competition. 

Originally from Honolulu, Hawai‘i, Dr. Chinen earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from  the University of Miami Frost School of Music, where he served as a graduate teaching assistant  and fellow in the Henry Mancini Institute. He holds a Master of Music from the Lynn  Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music from George Mason University, where he also  studied classical saxophone. His principal teachers include Joseph Robinson, Robert Weiner,  Lorrie Berkshire-Brown, and Susan Ochi-Onishi. 

Dr. Chinen has performed at festivals throughout the United States and abroad, including the  Kent Blossom Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, Hot Springs Music Festival,  Vancouver Summer Orchestra Institute at Whistler, and Talis Music Festival. He has also served  on the faculty of the Pacific Music Institute in Honolulu and the Judith Lapple Summer  Woodwind Camp in Fairfax, Virginia.