I just happened upon a “BART TV news” video that includes Louisa Spier, Public Relations Associate of the San Francisco Symphony.
Sorry I can’t embed the video here. You’ll have to click on this link.
Too bad, too, that BART doesn’t come to San Jose. :-(
It’s like classical music meets hip-hop. It’s a climate change symphony.
-Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid
I read it here.
Today is our first concert (of three) for the set with the English horn solos. And yes, I’m nervous. I’m at the point where I accept it, even though I don’t like it. I laugh at myself, even while I’m annoyed because I can’t control it. It’s just the way it is.
So some might wonder, “What does she do on a day like today?”
Much of the time I have other work which is good to distract me. Today two of my three students canceled, so I only have one 45 minute teaching job which doesn’t take up much time. In a bit I’ll fiddle with new EH reeds to see if I can get anything else up and running. I probably will toot once or twice on the Reed Of Choice (ROC™) and make sure nothing horrendous has happened to it. I’ll toot more on other reeds for fear of doing something to the ROC™ while practicing. I’ll probably veg out on TV shows I’ve recorded just to take my mind off of the evening’s job. Oh wait! I already did that. (Yes, this early in the morning. Watching TV before the 6:00 news is sort of like drinking in the early morning. Sigh. I’m embarrassed, but there you go.) I might clean the house a bit. And right now I’ll put on some music as I browse the internet because otherwise tonight’s EH solos will continually play in my head and that gets really annoying.
… pause here for iTunes moment …
Ah, there we go! I just put on Respighi’s Trittico Botticelliano since we are doing that next season. (There’s only one oboe so I’m not sure if I’ll be playing or not; that’s the same set our principal will be soloing on Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto No. 5 in D minor. Will she play the Respighi as well? Hmmm.)
One thing I never do on concert days (although I would only rarely do this anyway) is yard work. My hands hurt too much after, and I don’t want to take the chance of getting bad allergies. Nice, eh? A legitimate excuse to skip yard work! :-)
What would you prefer to be forced to do? Shoot Paul O’Grady in the kneecaps or learn to play the oboe?
(Psst. Who’s Paul O’Grady?)
Here it is: my first post on the new toy. It’s time consuming to post at this point since I don’t know the shortcuts yet. Are there short cuts?
I’m in between the two symphony rehearsals. It’s going okay, but it’s never just a breeze. At least not for me. You’d think I’d be used to this by now, eh?
Wow … you can hear him talk about some of his works. This is from a radio broadcast on July 2, 1944. Many thanks to Jessica Duchen for bringing this to my attention.
My oboe reed is on an emotional roller coaster.
Oh this is so appropriate right now! I had to bump another TQOD (Twitter Quote Of the Day) just because!
Ah life! It’s a bit of a stressful time here in English horn land. No surprise, considering the solos. What doesn’t help is that someone in the orchestra came up last night to suggest this was concert was all about me, that I should ask for soloist fees, etc, etc. He just meant to be flattering, I know, but of course it only adds to the, “This is important. Don’t you dare blow it!” thing.
And REEDS?! I have three that work. They aren’t perfect, and each has its issues. The first that I played sags on the G above the staff. The second on the G# above the staff. The third just isn’t as “buttery” as I’d like, and I’m not as comfortable on it. But it’ll probably have to be the “it reed” unless I can make something today that somehow, miraculously works.
In Other News
San Francisco Symphony sends me email to let me know what’s coming up. I received this yesterday:
Be among the first to hear Ashkenazy conduct the piece dedicated to him…
I usually laugh when someone says they went to see the symphony. But in this case wouldn’t I be one of the first the see Ashkenazy conduct the piece dedicated to him (Gerber’s Music in Dark Times)? I think so. Hmmm. We’d hear the results of his conducting; I’m going to guess he doesn’t make a lot of noise waving that baton. We’d hear the symphony play. (But they’ll probably hear see this post and maybe they will realize that I’m as gently witty as ever and offer me a job up there in any case. One that doesn’t require reed making. It’s an idea ….
Oh … and I have a new toy! I caved. I bought an iPod Touch. It is quite handy, but you won’t see blog posts, “tweets”, or Facebook updates from stage. I don’t have internet access at the hall. (Rats!) Not that I would have posted while working, but it would have been fun to update you immediately after. Maybe. But that’s life. I wasn’t about to spend the bucks for an iPhone which would have allowed that. That’s simply beyond this oboe player’s means right now.
Yay! Now I’ve spent enough time at the computer to have used up the necessary “30 minutes before eating after taking meds” thing and I can make a very necessary latté (VNL™). :-)
I landed at a blog of an oboist who was quite upset. She had arrived late to a rehearsal (not her fault of course … um … but really it was from what I read). Then this player was upset because, when apologizing after the rehearsal for being THIRTY minutes late (!), no one said, “Oh, that’s okay.”
My response, if I were capable of honestly, would have been, “Don’t let it happen again.” If this was a professional gig the musician, who was a sub, very well might not be asked back.
In reading the blog, too, the player only left 30 minutes before the rehearsal began! I live 7 minutes from work and I leave sooner than that.
Here’s the rule, in case anyone has forgotten: Don’t Be Late!
Period.
BASSOON AND OBOE ARE GONNA COMBINE to be double reeds again!!!!
Hmmm. So if they aren’t combined (whatever that means) they aren’t double reeds?
A very Young Yo-Yo having fun:
I haven’t turned this blog into a money-making venture, but on occasion I’m blessed with little perks. I’ve been given tickets to concerts, a reed maker actually sent me some reeds (sadly they didn’t work for me), I get a little bit of income from sheet music ordered from Sheet Music Plus (thanks, everyone!), and now I’ve been sent a book to review. I am hoping to get it read more quickly than I might normally read a book, since I have some down time at the rehearsals when they are rehearsing the Brahms Violin Concert.
If you are wondering what I’m writing about, you feel like supporting me here in this little blog, or you just want to read about it and get me to shut up, here you go:
Are oboe solos in symphonic metal the NEXT BIG THING???
Roman Carnival Overture:
(Is the EH player really standing, or am I seeing this wrong?)
New World Symphony, Second Movement:
I didn’t view either of these all the way through before posting them, and I sort of did that on purpose. I don’t want to comment on the English horn players … I’m just not into that. So not viewing them all the way through kind of gets me off the hook. How wimpy AM I, after all?
“I would strongly recommend everyone listen to music at work, if possible,” Paciariello says. “It really lightens up the day and makes the time go by a bit faster. And most importantly, you are entertained for a long stretch of time doing a job that may not be so entertaining.”
I wasn’t gonna listen at work, but since this guy highly recommends it and suggests that it makes the time go by a bit faster I suppose I’ll listen at tonight’s symphony rehearsal.
;-)
I read it here, and of course considering my career it made me laugh. Taken together with my job, it is pretty funny.
Okay, maybe just to me.
But really:
“Listening to music at work can be more than just fun for some people.”
(Yes, it’s work, thank you very much!)
… and this;
“For some of his clients, music is just another distraction that they don’t need.”
(Heh. If only all those other musicians could just be quiet maybe I could concentrate!)
And then there’s this: “Use headphones if you share an office.”
(Note to self: bring headphones tonight!)
But really, here’s the one I definitely must heed while at work:
“Keep the dance moves to a minimum.”
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