… 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.
