oboeinsight

KARL WALLINGER: Yeah, well here we are, the aneurysm and all that stuff. I don’t mind talking about that. Its something that actually happened so I might as well talk about it. I played a wind instrument since I was a kid and I always told myself that the aneurysm had nothing to do with smoking but something to do with my having played a wind instrument … though, I might be deluding myself a bit there, who knows. I played the oboe for years up till my late teens, until I did my exams and all that kind of stuff. I was an oboist really as far as my education was concerned. That’s a really high-pressure instrument and a lot of people that play those kinds of instruments have hemorrhages and this sort of thing…

STEREOGUM: Really?

KARL WALLINGER: Yeah, quite a few trumpet players and oboists have had an eruption or some sort of brain explosion. Its a really high pressure thing, I think that probably weakened it…

I read it here.

I’ve been playing oboe since something like 1968 or so. I’ve played professionally since 1975. I’ve never known anyone who’s had a hemorrhage from playing oboe.

(Anyone know the name Karl Wallinger? I sure didn’t.)

Very interesting story:

Every Thursday night, after Northeast Indiana Public Radio has shut down for the day, after the lights are out and the employees have gone home, after the hustle has calmed and the bustle has quieted, Joshua Stephenson arrives.

Joshua is a volunteer host at the radio station, and he records his classical music show – “Josh’s Corner,” which airs at 6 p.m. Saturdays – with his mother, Annette. He is 16 years old, and he started to listen to classical music when he was 6. As a child, large rooms with a lot of noise affected him more than other people. Loud sounds and crowds would cause Joshua to hold his ears, as if he were in pain, says his father, Scott Stephenson.

Sound sensitivity is a common symptom of autism, and Joshua, of Convoy, Ohio, has Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism that affects his ability to communicate and interact socially. To treat this sensitivity, Joshua’s parents turned to audio therapy: Using Bose headphones that emphasized the high and low pitches in song, Joshua started to build a tolerance to loud noises through classical music.

RTWT

Never.

Ethan Shelton is living proof you can teach an old dog new tricks.

The 108-year-old Berrien County man and founder of Shelton’s Farms in Niles decided at age 107 he was going to start playing the violin.

“I told my doctor that’s what I was going to do and his eyebrows went up, ‘What?’” said Shelton, as he sat in his home in Berrien Center.

Shelton practices almost every day on a used violin he bought about a year ago for $25.

“It is close to 100 years old — almost as old as I am,” he quipped.

RTWT