All our children are here! Kelsey & Brandon flew in (from Irvine and Seattle) and will get to see and hear Jameson perform tomorrow night. What fun! Unfortunately Jameson is so busy he’ll hardly see them, and I have three more performances (along with Jameson, of course) this weekend, so I’ll be gone a lot as well. Show biz!
Last night was the school’s opening night performance of Cats. After the performance one of the (well meaning) mothers, who knew I was playing in the orchestra, told me that she honestly couldn’t hear any difference between our show and a professional group. She wanted to be sure I knew she meant to include the orchestra in that. I just smiled. How else could I respond, after all? But to compliment a professional by saying that this fun group of high school players sound as good as my professional colleagues and I seems just a bit odd to me. Thoughts? I’m not saying the performance wasn’t good, mind you. The students do a very good job on the music. It’s fun to work with them for a few weeks.
Reeds Are Funny (Funny hmmm, not funny hah-hah!)
I am using the English horn reed I used for last week’s Berlioz and Debussy solos. The reed felt so entirely different on the California Theatre stage. Last week it was so perfectly responsive, with just that wonderful resistance that allows me to push but not too much. This week it was just plain hard, and didn’t want to produce enough sound. I finally had to whittle away at it a bit yesterday, so that I felt more comfortable for the musical. I really didn’t want to have to work so darn hard, and it was suddenly so stiff. Now it’s just fine and last night was the first time I really enjoyed playing the solos. I don’t know if the reed changed that much, or if it’s just the change of venue. Oboe-wise I have nothing difficult to worry about, so reeds for that aren’t a problem. This is definitely an EH book, not an oboe book. Some shows are like that.
After Cats is over I now do have one very small job; I’ll be playing a wedding on unaccompanied oboe. I’m looking forward to that! It’s been requested, by the groom, that I play Gabriel’s Oboe. I’ll also toss in some of the wonderful Telemann Fantasies. Playing for weddings, especially unaccompanied, is really enjoyable.
So one more gig in my future. Maybe I’ll get more …?
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