oboeinsight

Recently, I accompanied a faculty recital at UNM. In addition to being a well-liked and respected oboe professor, Kevin is the principal oboist of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Afterwards, I was taken aback by the dearth of his colleagues that were in attendance in the audience. It reminded me that every time I take personal offense at other’s lack of support, I should remember that it isn’t about me. But I wonder, if we aren’t partly making music for one another, for whom are we making music? Another musician I worked with recently made recital flyers that read, “This isn’t your sister’s flute recital. Disrupt your day.” Disrupt your day. It may me laugh out loud, but his point was well taken. It may take some disruption of our schedules and our lives to get us to support one another.

Read here, a site I’ve only recently discovered … check it out! Great writing. Honest. Real.

… and how often do I manage to skip a colleagues performance? Too often, I’m sorry to say.

I know I’m not the only one. We are a funny (in a sad sort of way) bunch much of the time, or so it seems to me. I know, too, that we musicians often have certain expectations; we think we are deserving of free tickets to concerts. Heaven forbid we pay to attend a concert! I even heard one musician say that “a musician should never have to purchase a ticket to a concert!” I’m not sure why that should be the case, but there you go. Free CDs? We want ‘em. We copy our friends’ CDs so we don’t have to buy anything. Music? Boy are we known for copying copyrighted music.

I think it’s because we often feel like we are underpaid and underappreciated. So we somehow justify these things we do. Go figure.

So buy recordings or music on occasion. And go to concerts. Pay now and then. Maybe someone will do the same for you! :-)
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The news is quickly making it all over Blogland™, so no doubt everyone has heard by now that Rachmaninoff’s great great (or not so great?) grandson is planning on changing some of the composer’s music enough so that copyright is renewed.

It’s a money thing. And I’ve a feeling a lot of people the same age as the great great grandson will say, “What’s the big deal?” But maybe I’m wrong. Do tell!

But anyway … moving on …

Have you ever noticed the copyright dates in your newer church hymnals? (What?! You havent’ checked a church hymnal in a while? Well, if you haven’t looked recently, I can tell you that a good number of the copyright dates are rather recent, even though the hymns are quite old. (Okay, I can tell you that even if you have looked. Just so you know.) Those wonderful church music folks rewrite the hymns just enough to renew copyright too. They are nice that way.
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So, if you happen to be going to the Canary Islands in April ….

I just received an email (spam?) about some company that does supertitles for opera companies. For the life of me I can’t figure out why they contacted me, but whatever. In any case, I just cracked up at that line I pasted above.

Sure. Me. Canary Islands. I just “happen to be going.” In April. Riiiggghhhtt.

If they want to finance my way.

Vacations. Those are in the future. And somehow I am guessing the Canary Islands won’t even fall into the future for yours truly. (My list: Germany (I have a brother and his family there), Italy (please, oh please), England, Scotland, Ireland, France Greece … okay, the list goes on and on.)

I find it very difficult to schedule vacations. First of all, they cost a lot of money. But then there’s the problem of, “What if I get a gig?” Sometimes I don’t get hired until the last minute. Turning down jobs is a bad idea, and of course I need any income I can get. So I’m seeing vacations in my future, but I’m not really up for scheduling anything big at this point in time.

Besides, we do have one more child to put through college!

Speaking of that … Jameson has his final musical theatre production at Lincoln High School. They open tonight with Fiddler on the Roof and he plays Motel the tailor. (That was my favorite part when I saw the movie years ago, and continues to be the part I’m most attracted to. I hate sewing. Go figure.)

I’ll attend the show tonight, and go one final time next week. This is the end of an era … no more high school musical theatre. Hard to believe, but there you go.

Jameson isn’t certain where he’ll attend college yet, but yesterday we toured UCSC. Now wouldn’t it be something if he and I were on the same campus? (I’ve promised I’d not bother him at all … but if he ever wanted a free lunch he’d know how to get one!)
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A friend of mine emailed me this morning:

“It’s the record companies who puff up their artists and encourage them to behave like prima donnas (then wonder why they have monsters on their hands).”

And this NEVER happens with rock artists, oh no.

The quote is from the same article to which I referred early this morning. The response is from my friend.

Good point, oh wise woman. (You know who you are, and you seem to want to remain nameles on my site …? So I’m abiding by that. For now—insert evil laugh—but beware! You’ve been named before and it could happen again. ;-)
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Much as I love Radio 3, it’s even the way that people “in the know” talk about music, the way they dissect and deconstruct this recording or that performance.

I’m getting tired of this sort of thing. Sure, musicians and those who love music talk a different language than folks who aren’t in the know. Dancers talk a language I don’t know when they talk about dance. Doctors do the same thing. So do lawyers. Heck, so do plumbers.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t speak plainly to our audiences when we are talking to them, so if someone is talking “above” their listeners—say, on the radio—they might want to rethink that. But really … can people just realize that there is a musical language and we aren’t going to dump that? I hope the writer isn’t asking us to dumb down. A writer wouldn’t want us to do that, would she?

Oh … but I remember a writers’ conference where we were asked to dumb down. Hmmm.

I could say more about the article, and the quote that began it all (see the beginning of the article), but it’s 2:30 AM and I’m hoping that I’ll finally get to sleep now that I’ve bored myself with this little ramblerant™.

(I’ll probably get up in the morning, read this, and wonder what the heck I was trying to say!)
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I’m behind … again. I need to update the page on double reed camps, festivals, workshops and more. But I did just put a few new things on those pages so check ‘em out of you are interested. I am realizing a few things about those pages: 1) I can never keep up! (Duh) 2) These are all organized very poorly and I should reorganize. 3) Once again a lot of deadlines have already passed so if you are interested in these places you had better check to see if there are still openings.

Such is life.

Of course I can’t keep up with any of my other pages either. I’m certain the Double Reed Musicians pages are in dire need of help. Do email me if you have any updates, please!

At least I’ve managed to get the current auditons page fairly up to date, although I need to take the Buffalo and Fort Collins auditions off of the list. (Anyone know who won Buffalo?)
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