Well here it is, the first day for Deceptive Cadence, NPR’s newest music blog (cue the trumpet fanfares and pealing bells!).
We could have called it simply NPR’s Classical Music Blog, but the phrase “classical music” carries so much baggage — dead, old, white, European. It is, in a way, its own worst enemy.
Instead, we came up with a moniker that suggests a more open-ended view of music that is not only still breathing, thank you, but vigorously evolving.
We are nearing the start of the fall quarter, so I’m posting this here, in hopes that I might “catch’ some of you this way. Time will tell:
Fall Quarter, 2010
I am planning to continue teaching on Tuesday mornings. If you would like lessons please contact me so that we can set up a time to meet. I will be on campus on Tuesday, September 21 from 1:30-3:00 to hear you audition for the studio. Please come by then so I can hear you, determine if you are able to sign up for lessons, and work on scheduling things (room yet to be determined … stay tuned!).
Thanks!
(Questions? Email me a pmitchel [at] ucsc [dot] edu)
Ah fall quarter … it’s always a challenge to get the word out to new students. It’s even more of a challenge to schedule the lessons around everyone’s already scheduled classes.
I dunno Should I play flute or oboe?
I have a flute and I have learned how to play it. I still find the oboe much more fun to play and I like the sound. I just don’t know if i want to spend on a oboe just because I like the sound and the way that my mouth looks while playing it.
I like the double reed very very much and it’s so funky. I already have a flute to play though.
Additional Details
I prolly don’t sell the flute, but I will have to buy an Oboe and I think they’re kind of costly.
Sooo … opening weekend has taken place. I am really enjoying Anna Karenina, and it appears that a good number of audience members do as well. Who knows what reviewers think, but I’ll probably ignore those. At least for now. It’s just safer sometimes, and I fear a bad review may just hit me too hard.
During intermission of opening night a friend came up and mentioned that there sure was a lot of oboe. (She was also quite complimentary, which is always nice!) How funny that I wasn’t really thinking about how much oboe there was, though. I have one rather lengthy solo bit near the beginning, and once the first note of that comes out (I’d been having reed issues during rehearsals that started to make me worry) I’m just fine. There are some crazy difficult parts for everyone, and we are all working incredibly hard and getting through it all! I think the singers for both casts sound wonderful.
I went to a tech rehearsal (I think I might have mentioned that in another blog entry …?) and took pictures, but sadly I only brought my iPhone and it isn’t great quality and can’t zoom in at all. I’ll post a few, but you really get very little idea of the production from these.
Yours truly in the pit on opening night (thanks Dan!), along with some other orchestra members:
Purchases through these links help fund the cost of the blog. Thank you very much!
Oboe sheet music for beginners to experts. Solos, ensembles, play alongs, and methods at Sheet Music Plus.
Hear Me At Work
Here are just a few recordings from the past. It's rare I have anything I'm allowed to share, due to union rules.
