San Francisco Opera

20. January 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: Opera

SF Opera has announced their next season (most of which I’d already heard about thanks to Opera Tattler, who often knows things before the rest of us). We received our renewal form and brochure yesterday. Some bloggers aren’t terribly thrilled.

Me?

I am fairly new to being an audience member at opera (been in the pit for 25+ years), so I’m not getting any “repeats” at this point. I’m okay with the operas, although I’m not doing backflips over them. (But I never do backflips, truth be told.)

Here are some blog links if you want to read what others are saying:

Iron Tongue of Midnight
Summer is Coming In
Kinderkuchen for the FBI
A Beast in a Jungle

… and I’m still looking forward to the remainder of this season!

I know what Opera San José is doing as well, but I’m not sure we are supposed to divulge that information yet, and I don’t like to spill the beans without permission.

The Lowell Duo

20. January 2010 · Comments Off on The Lowell Duo · Categories: Concert Announcements

If you can make it there, I highly recommend hearing this duo!

The Lowell Duo

Janet Popesco Archibald, oboe & English Horn
Howard Kadis, classical guitar, lute & archlute

Join us for an eclectic afternoon of works by Classical composers of all eras, Baroque, Classical, Impressionist & Contemporary, including works by Locatelli, Scarlatti, Faure,Villa Lobos & Karl Pilss
Sunday, January 31, 2010 3:00pm
Armando’s 707 Marina Vista Av, Martinez, CA
$10.00 cover charge/ 2 for $18.00

Someone Want To Answer This?

20. January 2010 · Comments Off on Someone Want To Answer This? · Categories: Yahoo! Answers

What should I expect with the oboe?
Right now I play the flute(7.5 years), Alto Saxophone(3.5 years), and the bassoon(2.5 years). I personally have kinda despised the oboe because people would always mistake the bassoon for an oboe(stupid reason I know). And I am good enough on the bassoon to get first chair of my school district’s honor band. So i don’t sound like a duck anymore XP. And just recently, a senior from last year brought her oboe in to play with the band, (she was visiting), and I asked her if I could try her oboe, she said yes, I tried it. And my very first note was clear and didn’t sound like a beginner at all. (according to her) I don’t know if I was just a natural with the oboe, or playing the bassoon helped.

So now I am looking to learn the oboe. I have played around with the school’s english horn(didn’t sound that great because it was broken in the first place), so I am kinda already familiar with some of the basic fingerings. I could do one octave chromatically.

So, anything I should be aware of, or any tips. Anything would help, I teach myself the instruments, so if there is something teaching books don’t mention that would be great. 🙂

Please and thank you

Some of you probably know what I might suggest. (Hint: a teacher!) But this young player obviously isn’t interested in that. So perhaps one of you would like to answer the question.

Update The link won’t work … and it says the question has been taken down. (And that link also messed with my blog entry for some reason.) But if I google the first few sentences I’m taken to the question. Odd.

TQOD

20. January 2010 · Comments Off on TQOD · Categories: TQOD

Has anybody else notice the oboe on the hamburger helper commercial sounds like a clarinet

Beethoven’s Skull

20. January 2010 · Comments Off on Beethoven’s Skull · Categories: News

It’s for sale. Really.

The seller is California businessman Paul Kaufmann, who first became aware that his family possessed the item in 1990. While searching among his late mother’s possessions, he happened on an ancient, pear-shaped box labeled “Beethoven.”

Oh … it’s not the entire skull … I just read this:

Kaufmann inherited the bones in 1993 and eventually sought scientists who could prove whether the fragments — each more than 3 inches long — were indeed Beethoven’s.

Low A

20. January 2010 · 2 comments · Categories: Oboe

A new work I played recently included a low A.

Everyone knows an oboe doesn’t have a low A.

Or does it?!

I want an oboe like that. It just sounds like fun! Sort of like having the extension for my English horn. Since I have it, I love it when someone includes the low B♭ … but maybe now I need a low A on the English horn, too. Hmm. I wonder.

The blog I’m linking to above is one new to me. I plan on checking it out more. You might want to as well.

Jeff Rathbun Speaks

20. January 2010 · Comments Off on Jeff Rathbun Speaks · Categories: Symphony, Videos
Cleveland Orchestra strike settled

I found it here.