September 20, 2008
10am-12pm & 2pm-4pm
Chandler Hall, Old Dominion University

RAY STILL, former principal oboe with the Chicago Symphony, is acknowledged to be one of the greatest living performers on his instrument. His teachers were Philip Melomi, Fernand Gillet, Bruno Labate and Robert Bloom. The great Henride Busser was a profound influence in early years.
He began his career as principal oboe with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony. and then the Chicago Symphony for 35 years, playing under all the major conductors in the last half of the 20th century: Fritz Reiner, Sir Georg Solti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Claudio Abaddo, James Levine and Daniel Barenboim to name just a few.

His many solo recordings include Quartets for Oboe and Strings with fellow artists Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Lynn Harrell, Schumann Romances for oboe and piano with John Perry, and the Bach Wedding Cantata with Kathleen Battle, James Levine and the CSO strings.

Master Class for professionals and advanced students: Mr. Still will cover a wide range of oboe repertoire: solo and orchestral. He will deal with common technical problems in performance, and include a talk, “It’s all in the breath.”

Private lessons will be available by appointment on September 19th. Please call or e mail for a time

Fee: $100 participant, $20 auditor, $75/ one hour lesson

More info: Call Sherie Aguirre: (757) 537-9566 or email: sherie [dot] aguirre [at] gmail.com
or visit Ray Still website: raystill.com

Bill Bennett held a Ray Still Masterclass at San Francisco Conservatory about four years ago. I and a student of mine were able to attend. (No, we didn’t play.) Mr. Still loves to talk, and was great fun to listen to. I did share some of his quotes at my old oboe site way back when, and here they are again (yes, there were many, many more. I suspect I didn’t save all those notes, and some things he said were so hysterical or fabulous.):

[Too many musicians are] too involved with doing and not listening.

Demand more of yourself.

In order to play musically you have to learn the art of exaggerating.

Those pushups … get away from them! … you need those muscles mushy!

Notes, usually to be musical, have to move in or out. They don’t sound like clarinets!

-Ray Still