Check out this cartoon. (Many thanks to Stephen Ruppenthal for alerting me to it!)

Lintu acknowledges that most orchestras nowadays could play quite well together without the involvement of a conductor. “Conducting technique is not as detailed as piano technique or violin technique, where you really have to know where you put your finger, and what you do after that. Conducting is a more general thing. It’s more like creating atmosphere. But it’s more demanding, because you have to create this sound. You have 100 people contributing to that sound, and it is your duty to create it. Because most of the orchestras in the world can play together without any conductor. You are there to help them play better musically, and help them make a sound that is more coherent, that makes more sense from the composer’s point of view.”

Well heck … sometimes we can’t play together with a conductor! They can do that to us at times. Really. ;-)

Read the whole article.

30. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: FBQD

My cat just stole my oboe reed…

I knew my father felt that music would give me a better standard of living than the vicissitudes of the theatre, but he didn’t say it openly.

-David McCallum

I read it here.

I first “knew” McCallum from the show the Man from UNCLE. He was the one we girls were in love with:

And the beginning of this video has my favorite line from NCIS:

30. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Concert Announcements

I wish I could go, but I have Nutcracker. I do hope some of you can make it!

Hi Everyone,
Come celebrate Winter & the Holiday season with your friends, family & members of the Lowell Trio at Armando’s in Martinez, Sunday December 19, 4-6pm!
Veteran Lowell Trio members Janet Popesco Archibald, oboe & English Horn, and Margaret Wong Fondbertasse, piano, will be joined by special guest Leslie Chin, flute & alto flute, fresh from her 1 1/2 year run of playing ‘Wicked’ at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco!
Featured works will include trios of Bach & Handel, seasonal favorites by Vivaldi , Berlioz & Vince Guaraldi, ‘Classical Dancing with the Stars’ , and some lovely Classical rarities.
Hope to see you there!
best wishes,
Janet Archibald
Armando’s 707 Marina Vista Av, Martinez $10. cover

30. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Videos

The film isn’t just about this comedy team. I’d love to see it sometime!

30. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: TQOD

cry out lod… why violin is in my hand?? why not oboe or some easier instrument instead?? cry cry cry and cry but..cry.

30. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Advent

Walter Lambe(1450-1504): Magnificat
Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

29. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Read Online

We are born with a gene for making music. … My job is to find out where that music is in this population and get it out.

-Paula Moore

Do read the article about this woman and the group of people she works with. I think you will be moved, as I was.

Remember that young incredibly talented oboist from last week? Well, she’s back!

I still have no more information about her. I know she’s eleven. I believe her name is Yeonsu. I know these videos are from the “Yeonsu Kumho Prodigy Concert”, whatever that is. But that’s it. I’d love to know more!

29. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Read Online

Another performer, who played oboe but lost three fingers on his playing hand in an accident, recently had a customized oboe commissioned to accommodate his lost fingers, according to O’Riley.

Okay … um … which is the “playing hand”?

But mostly I’d love to know more about this musician and his oboe. I’ve always just assumed that if one lost fingers that would be the end of the oboe. I’m hoping to read more about this somewhere.

I read it here.

Update
Found this:

We also do a where-are-they-now show twice a year, in which we will play with the kids who have previously appeared on the show. Some of the follow-up stories are quite fascinating. There was this young oboe player who lost three fingers in his right hand in a kitchen accident and went to University of Southern California with an ambition to learn French horn; there, he actually found a way to design an oboe that he would be able to play with the remaining fingers, so now he can continue to play the oboe.

Wow. I’m impressed! I’d love to see this oboe he’s designed!

29. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Concert Announcements

I’ve never heard this opera. All oboists know the overture, but how many know the full opera, I wonder?

On Sunday evening, December 5, at 8 PM, there will be a free student-organized production of Gioacchino Rossini’s one-act comic farce, “La Scala di Seta” in the Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. This opera is one of those “secret marriage” comedies with a libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa. The title refers to the silken ladder used by the secret spouse (Dorvil) of the heroine (Giulia) to gain access to her bedroom.

Stage direction for this production will be by Ragnar Conde. Roberto Kalb will conduct members of the Conservatory Orchestra along with vocal soloists Georgia Duan (Giulia), Michael Desnoyers (Dorvil), Emmanuel Franco (Germano), Charles Oppenheim (Blansac), Evgenia Chaverdova (Lucilla), and Alan Briones (Dormont).

I read the above here

Thanks to Elliott Burke for bringing this to my attention!

29. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Asked Online

Alright, so I’ve been playing Clarinet since I began band in the 5th grade. I love clarinet, don’t get me wrong, but I was one of those people who “finger learned” to play it (Meaning I learned when to finger the right fingering and not the actual notes). Now, being in the 9th grade, It’s become increasingly hard for me to play my Clarinet (I’m not HORRID at it, but I’m not the best player either.) So, my teacher suggested that I switched instruments. He suggested maybe Saxophone or Bari. Sax, and I considered playing the Bari. Sax for a while… but then during our instrument step up sale recently, I found and tested an Oboe. I immediately fell in love with it, and according to a Bassoon player who had heard Oboe playing before, I “wasn’t half bad”. So, now, I suggested it to my teacher, and he said that I’d half to work amazingly hard to become good at it.

I REALLY want to play Oboe but the fingerings are different, and I’m concerned that I’ll be really bad.

So, what should I do?

I would first answer, “Learn to read music!” From the sound of it this student is switching because he/she has “finger learned”. What’s going to change if the kiddo switches instruments? Hmmm.

29. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: OutsideMyWorld™

Finally, a song about good reeds!

Trio Rococo playing Brian Wilson’s famous “Good Vibrations” in a special arrangement by Niels Eje (composer of the MusiCure CD series) from the album “Friends”, Gefion Records.

Trio Rococo:
Niels Eje: Oboe,
Berit Spælling: Harp,
Inge Mulvad Eje: Cello