Earle Dumler, principal oboe of the Los Angeles Opera, describes James Caldwell as "the greatest American oboist of my generation . . . Not only was his playing wonderfully elegant, he was truly a class act." Caldwell was also, from 1971, a Professor of Oboe at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he trained many leading oboists.

His interest in his art extended well beyond the traditional boundaries. It was in the late Sixties, while he was principal oboist at the National Symphony Orchestra, that Caldwell and his wife, the cellist Catharina Meints, became interested in the Baroque era and, although both had been trained on modern instruments, in their spare time learned to play the period equivalents. Caldwell had taken up the viola da gamba and with his wife went to Basle in Switzerland to study with August Wenzinger, one of the most celebrated teachers of the instrument. The couple began to collect period instruments.

In 1971, they moved to Ohio, where Caldwell was appointed Professor of Oboe and Meints joined the Cleveland Orchestra, and the following summer, at Oberlin, they founded the Baroque Performance Institute (BPI), the first American summer school for singers and instrumentalists to study and perform early music on period instruments. They invited Wenzinger to direct the three-week programme - which is now in its 34th year.

Caldwell was born in 1938 in Gladewater, East Texas, the son of a stationmaster. He showed very early musical ability and had his first lessons on the piano. He also possessed a fine voice and sang as a treble soloist. At 13 he had his first lessons on the oboe and decided that this was to be his instrument.