No, there aren’t any professional musicians in my family. My mother had me take piano lessons, and I’m very glad she did, but at the time it wasn’t exciting, practicing and all that. It’s a funny story about how I got started with oboe. In junior high my older brother was in band, and I started off on clarinet. At one point an oboe became available because the oboist graduated, and I thought I’d take it up. Since there was only one, I knew I would be first chair. It is a great instrument, but you spend a lot of time making reeds, more time doing that than actually practicing. It makes oboists a little crazy, not that opera singers are exactly sane.-Eric Owens (read at the Opera Tatler site, here)
Unless the “unknown” folks are sometimes from mainland China, I have never had a visitor from that rather large plot of land. (Check out my referrals page if you don’t know what I’m talking about.)
**If the link above doesn’t work for you try scrolling down to the very bottom of the right sidebar and click on the sitemeter link. I hope that one works. (Let me know if you feel like it!)
Earlier this morning Bill Jobert sent me the following:
Wright State University welcomes our newest music faculty member Katherine L. deGruchy who will serve as the adjunct professor of oboe, perform with the faculty woodwind quintet and the University Chamber Orchestra. Her performance background includes 17 years in the Mexico City Philharmonic. She is an active performer with the Middletown Symphony, the Lebanon Symphony, the Dayton Philharmonic and the Burning River Winds (a wind trio). She earned Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied under John Mack and is presently working on her doctorate at the Cincinnati Conservatory with oboe professor Mark Ostoich. She presently has a full studio of students from the Dayton area and is oboe instructor at the Stivers School for the Arts.
(If you have issues with “language” please don’t listen. There. You’ve been warned.)
The chamber music insurgents with an urgence to earn it,
We’re steppin’ forth in new directions cuttin’ beats like a surgeon.
With the sound causin’ all these flat composers to flee,
it’s the Mobtown Modern and HGP.Knockin’ ivory towers down, bringin’ it straight to the hood,
it’s Dubble8 and SLN and we’re up to no good.
Spinnin’ wax, playin’ sax and makin’ music with poise,
we’re the best, oh so fresh, and all the rest is noise!
To read all the words and listen to the whole thing, visit this.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I attended on complementary tickets provided by the festival. I usually don’t do this and frankly this was my first experience acccepting press passes for something I saw for OutWestArts. I did it in part because the evening included a “blogger’s night” reception meant to welcome local bloggers to the festival and to help launch a major new addition to our ranks, the new blog from long-time music critic and recently dismissed LA Weekly contributor Alan Rich. Mr. Rich was present at the reception and made some brief comments about how he is learning about blogging, a new experience for him, and hopes this outlet will act as a space for community and conversation around local music events. He noted the importance of this given that to his understanding there are no “important” music blogs on the West Coast at this time. It’s nice to see that Mr. Rich’s transition from the “old” to the “new” media hasn’t burdened him with the unnecessary baggage of tact.
Read more here
Well. Okay. Mine is probably not considered important music blog by anyone, but I do know there really are important music blogs out here. Look at the right sidebar for a number of them.
If I were the retaliatory sort I’d nix his link from my site. But I link to a lot of folks who won’t link to me. And I link to some who aren’t always nice to me. I’m just that kind of girl. 😉
