oboeinsight

… and yet another reed player has been struck with it.

Not that it only chooses reed players. A friend who played trombone was taken from us last year, dying of the same cancer this oboist has. But I do wonder about our reeds, and whether what the cane grows in is safe, as I’ve known so many reed players who have had cancer.

A new documentary and CD chronicles one University of Kentucky faculty member’s battle with an incurable disease. Diagnosed in 2008 with multiple myeloma, oboist Nancy Clauter is taking others on her journey through cancer treatment and her fight to continue to play.

An oboist for more than 45 years, Clauter earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Arizona State University and a master’s degree in music from University of Arizona.

Clauter joined UK’s faculty in 1997, where she quickly began focusing her research on arranging and performance. Active in the local music scene, she also performs as principal oboe for the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra. Currently, Clauter is an associate professor of oboe at the School of Music in the UK College of Fine Arts.

Clauter’s journey with cancer began in 2008, when she visited an urgent care center with symptoms she believed to be the flu. Less than a day later, she found herself in the hospital undergoing a battery of blood tests and facing a dire diagnosis: multiple myeloma, a rare, blood-related cancer with no cure.

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After five years and 23 short-term extensions, Congress has passed legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the next four years. Included in the bill are provisions that create a uniform national policy regarding musical instruments on airplanes. Any instrument that can be safely stored in the overhead compartment or underneath the seat may be brought on board as carry-on luggage. Additionally, the bill sets standard weight and size requirements for checked instruments, and permits musicians to purchase a seat for oversized instruments, such as cellos, that are too delicate to be checked. Existing law allowed each airline to set their own policy regarding musical instruments, and size requirements varied widely for both carry-on and checked baggage. The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) has been lobbying Congress to enact such a policy for nearly a decade.

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I never had any problems with taking my oboe on a plane, but I rarely travel. Those who travel frequently have stories to tell. I’ve heard some pretty awful ones.

The New York Times had a feature by Danielle de Niese, 32, writing about what she wore, which of course everyone was dying to know.

And now Barihunk Michael Adair, 31, writes about what he wore!

Hmmm. Are you all dying to know what I, 55, wore? And maybe when I wake up (alarm goes off every day at 7:30 AM, fyi) too? Do tell!

Probably a dog.

Oh. Wait. I heard a dog at a concert once.

The youngster had been wailing for quite some time when Gittleman stopped the music, turned to the audience, and asked that the child be removed. Some audience members applauded.

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I’m sorry that the parents were probably embarrassed. I’m sorry classical music may once again get the rep for being uptight. But really, if a child is crying, he or she should be taken out of the hall. And really, why would someone bring an infant to a concert in the first place?

I remember doing Camelot many many years ago with Richard Harris. Near the start of the musical a baby was crying. Harris, playing King Arthur, had just met Guenevere for the first time. He asked her, staying in character the whole time, “Did you bring a baby with you? I’m hearing a baby cry somewhere nearby.” She replied that she had not. He continued, concerned about the poor crying baby.

That baby must have been taken out right then, as we heard no more crying in that show.

(I’m joking, I’m joking … I do love working with conductors!) But …

The first half of last night’s Boston Symphony Orchestra subscription program was incredibly refreshing, and it’s not hard to see why. After the Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly withdrew from both of his scheduled subscription weeks, the most recent in a seemingly endless spate of cancellations, the orchestra summarily scrapped the entire first half of Chailly’s scheduled program and replaced it with four conductorless works. That must have felt good. It also projected a message.

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Jason sought the Golden Fleece, Ahab searched for the white whale and Psyche searched the world over for Cupid.

Bob Burks, principal oboe for the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, is on the hunt for the perfect reed. Burks, who is second to only Concertmaster Don Zimmer as the longest tenured principal with the CSO, makes his own reeds, something he has plenty of practice doing since they don’t last long.

Burks said he once made a “freak reed” that held on for 19 shows while he was touring Germany, but it eventually split in half prior to the final concert.

Burks said he is constantly purchasing and making his own reeds from cane he buys from France. He often performs this task while watching a Hallmark movie.

I read that, and more, here.

& I’ll just end with this:

People ask all the time what is the most difficult instrument to play and the oboe is mentioned a lot. I don’t agree with that because they are all difficult to learn and perfect. The crazy thing about being a musician is that you are always in search of perfection and I don’t think it exists. I’ve never left the stage thinking that was perfect.

Yep.

… because there’s no way I can hide this body behind an oboe. Or even an English horn.

Musicians can get personal and expose themselves through their songs and music so why not show a little more skin and raise money for the music community at the same time.

The Naked Folk calendar was created by a local photographer who hopes to raise money for musicians without health insurance.

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You know … the one that used the symphony? Now you can read more about it!

When Joshua Phillips signed on this season as a French horn player in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, he had no idea the job description included taking a snowball to the head.

“I was trying to do what I was told,” he explained.

The instructions were coming not from a sadistic conductor, but from Milwaukee export and funny film director David Zucker of “Airplane!” and “Naked Gun” fame. He agreed to direct a humorous new ad to promote winter tourism in Wisconsin. The spot will begin airing in parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois this week.

The 30-second commercial opens with the orchestra peacefully playing “Winter Wonderland” on a stage covered in artificial snow. A caption says, “A winter evening in Wisconsin.” All is well until two stage hands, trying to sprinkle flakes on the performers, accidentally dump a whole box of snow on Ted Soluri, the principal bassoonist in real life but a French horn player in the ad.

I do not doubt that it can.

Lt Col Ron Capps has no doubt that writing about his wartime experiences saved his life – and now he has the chance to help provide the scientific proof.

Over 25 years in the army and a career in the foreign service, he witnessed five different wars. He served in Rwanda, Kosovo and Afghanistan, where he was treated for post traumatic stress disorder.

He went to Iraq, and later in Darfur, Sudan, he attempted suicide.

“My medications weren’t working and I was self-medicating with whatever I could find lying around,” he says.

“I was having a lot of problems and one of the things I found that really helped me was writing. I wrote my way home.”

Anatomy of the brain

Ms Walker says making art lifts a burden from the vets’ shoulders
Now Lt Col Capps is running creative writing workshops at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), a new military medical facility at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, that offers holistic healing for brain trauma and other invisible wounds of war.

And for the first time, neurologists there will attempt to discover how creative writing and other arts therapies physically affect the brain.

“We have in this facility the technology to look in great detail at the anatomy of the brain and the function of the brain,” says NICoE Director Dr James Kelly.

“No other location in the country has all this in one place.”

Dr Kelly’s team is now creating a series of tests to monitor the brain’s metabolism and magnetic impulses as patients are exposed to writing, painting and music.

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Do note that it’s about the participation in the arts rather than the observation (although I’m sure going to a concert or a gallery can also provide healing moments) they are talking about.

The students were divided into two groups “that were equal on academic performance.” Each group viewed a different version of an hour-long videotaped lecture on “Expertise in Athletics,” in which the talk was accompanied by synchronized slides.
For one group, the lecture was accompanied by a series of familiar classical pieces, including excerpts from Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto. The other group heard the lecture with no background music.

I’m afraid it wouldn’t have been “background music” to me … I would have started listening only to the music and stopped listening to the lecture.

I know some will get all excited about this article, but it just bugs me.

But then I’m easily bugged.