oboeinsight

You DO know what today is … don’t you?
Happy April Fools’ Day!
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Of course, being a musician, I myself am rarely at work (or even awake) before noon, . . .

-Stefan Katz (quote found here)
Okay folks, I have news for you: I never sleep until noon. And I never have.
My alarm clock goes off on weekdays, for the time being, at around 6:20. Except on [...]

World Record Concert

So it was long. And there was an earthquake. And there were more than 900 musicians.
But there is NO mention of an oboist.
I ask you, can it really be considered a concert, then? No sirree. ;-)
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… MAYBE.
I was sent two (free!) reeds from Back Bay Reeds. Thank you so much, Meredeth Rouse! They are quite good. One was a student reed, using the fake cork staple, and the other a professional, using a cork staple. Both played well when I received them. Both were “concert ready” to be honest.
Now [...]

It’s got nothing really to do with race: Black flutists don’t sound black any more than female violinist sound female, so let’s leave that preposterous debate alone.
Oh well. I thought the reason people said I sounded beatiful was because I’m … oh … never mind. And when someone says “Your tone was really fat,” (not [...]

Some orchestra members came prepared for very specific adventures: Bassist Don Evans, cellist Michael Lipman and librarian Lisa Gedris all brought their golf clubs. Early in the morning, they drove north from Ventura Beach to a course in Ojai, where they played a round together. Cellist Adam Liu accompanied them on the outing — his [...]

… this isn’t supposed to sound like a real orchestra. I’ll have to read more to see if Notion is saying this recording sounds like real musicians, but this page makes me think that they think they sound real.
They don’t.
Maybe I’m not getting it though. I don’t get a lot of things. So I’m [...]

Authorities in Vienna are planning to drive drunks and drug addicts from the city’s main underground station, Karlsplatz, by the judicious use of the music for which the city has become renowned - opera.

I’ve written about this before, and I’m guessing I’ll write about it again. But oh well! It just irks me that we [...]

No, not the kind that parents set up for their children. (I actually despise the whole “play date” thing … when I was a kid I just walked down the street, knocked on the door and said, “Can Sherri play?” But now I’m sounding OLD, aren’t I?)
This “Play! date” is about a video game concert. [...]

“There are a lot of musicians who come here thinking that the most important thing is their art, and that other concerns—like making money—don’t matter.” Around the beginning of fourth year, though, “People start to get a little scared. They start thinking, ‘what am I gonna do next?’”

Read the article.
I think a lot of music [...]

No longer tired, Henry comes away from the wall where he’s been leaning, and walks into the middle of the dark auditorium, toward the great engine of sound. He lets it engulf him. There are these rare moments when musicians together touch something sweeter than they’ve ever found before in rehearsals or performance, beyond the [...]

Oboe Movie - A Day in the Life. (A typo—Elivis?!—and an oboe with missing keys … but cute!)

And now off to work on reeds, and to practice the Ravel for next week (English horn: Ravel’s Piano Concerto).
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For example, the music John Williams wrote for E.T. is like a symphony. It’s complex and it’s not that easy to play. (Ahhh. So that’s what makes a symphony!)

and from the same article:
Classical music used to be written to accompany plays on the stage or as background music for another activity, but we became purists [...]

Terri Gross: What kept you going to high school and college, in spite of the success that you were having?
Booker T.: Well, I had not yet met my own standards, I wasn’t yet writing the music I was hearing in my mind; I had a classical background and a curiosity for all of the [...]

My headache did finally leave, I have a new “do” (as in haircut) … well … it looks the same, I suppose. But it’s lighter (as in thinned out a bit … have a lot of hair) and I think it means I’ve lost weight. Or something.
But anyway, I’m home now, and it’s off [...]

In response to In Other News Jill wrote, “Well, I am impressed! Seems like I only do housework to get out of practicing these days.”
Um. Blush. Well, yes.
Why do you think I got so much housework done? That was all BEFORE the reed work. ;-)
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Studio dusted and vacuumed
Family room vacuumed
Bathrooms cleaned
Five pieces of cane shaped (yeah, I know, big whoop!)
Three oboe reeds wound, a bit of whittling done (while listening to Butterfly)
Huge, rotten, painful headache (grumble)
Haircut at 2
2 students after
Verdi at 7:30

Busy day. This headache better go away. NOW.

… and no, I won’t be entering. They didn’t have a category for “pretty darn mediocre voice” so oh well! (I’m too OLD anyway!)
But if any readers are interested, Read about it, and see all that’s required for the preliminary West Coast Auditions.
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Planning on living the life of a musician? Think you have what it takes? And do you understand how few get the Big Gig that will pay for a “normal” life. (Okay, so no musician ever really lives a normal life … when you lose most weekends and a lot of evenings normal doesn’t happen.) [...]

Or … more importantly to this oboist … Do you hear the musicians play?
Because we aren’t being hired as much these days. For shows like Les Misérables (for those of you not in the know, that’s where the subject title comes from), the large pit orchestra has gotten smaller since it was first performed. [...]

The rehearsal space of Baghdad’s Symphony Orchestra is in the capital’s largely Shiite Shaab district. Hassam al-Din al-Ansari, aged 64, the orchestra’s composer and principal violinist, is in his office tuning his violin and improvising little arpeggios as he does. Like most in the orchestra before the invasion, he sustained his poorly paid musical career [...]

The moment I realized I didn’t have to major in music in order to play, it was like a blinding light shining down.

-Eve Cohen

This is from Blair Tindall’s latest article.
There are alternatives to going into music professionally. You don’t have to quit music entirely. And that’s a good thing, don’t you think?
I’ve coached a [...]

Here are two blogs I just now found that have black backgrounds and white letters.
I think I might like the blogs, but I can’t read them because my darn eyes go all wacky after reading white on black.
Rats.
I know I’ve read other blogs where the writer says he/she finds it easier to [...]

The jury is out on this piece. I just don’t know about it. Of course, I’m the next to the most severe critic of my music, the most severe being my son. I like parts of it very, very much. Other things in it I’m unconvinced by. I shouldn’t be giving myself bad press, but [...]

You know how some clothes are … they swish when you walk? They look good, but that sound. Ugh. Not as bad as squeaky shoes (at least not to me) but still ….
Anyway (without the “s” … why do so many people type “anyways”?) I do know what Jason Heath meant, but when I read, [...]