Today @ UCSC

23. September 2008 · Comments Off on Today @ UCSC · Categories: Ramble

I spent the entire day at UCSC. I met with oboists, and then listened to the orchestra auditions for woodwinds and brass. I’m pretty darn tired, but it was great to see and hear some fine players.

I did a stupid thing, though: I neglected to get all the oboists who played for me to give me their email info! Oh dear! I’ve managed to locate all but one. (So Mr. Specht, if you read this blog, please contact me!) We had the largest turnout of oboists ever. How exciting is that?!

Tomorrow SSV begins, and I move from principal oboe and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin to English horn and Ellington’s River Suite and selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet Suites 1, 2 and 3. A wee bit of a change, don’t you think?

BQOD

23. September 2008 · 4 comments · Categories: BQOD

Ever heard an Oboe? I have. For 2 long years. For hours on end. If I never heard an Oboe, Picalo, or Flute again my life would be complete. You see, I had a Music Theory Grad Student renting from me once. End of story.

It’s All In The Name

23. September 2008 · Comments Off on It’s All In The Name · Categories: BQOD, Huh?

A POPULAR Lancashire orchestra with a tongue-twisting title is bidding to raise its profile – by dropping its name.

For the past 12 years Sinfonietta, the county’s only professional orchestra, has built up a fantastic reputation among concert goers.

But now bosses of the 40-strong group, which includes members of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Halle, feel a change is needed.

General manager Fiona Sinclair said there was a lot of pride in the name but the fact that many people struggle to pronounce Sinfonietta, which means ‘small symphony orchestra’, is putting some off booking tickets.

Oh yeah. That’s really difficult to pronounce all right. Or maybe not.

But what IS in a name, anyway? Does it really matter? Hmm. Maybe so. Check out this BQOD:

I’ve also really hit it off with the oboe player in the orchestra. She’s the only person in the orchestra who hangs regularly with the cast members, probably because she’s also an actress and has been in shows with some of them. The first words she ever said to me: “You remind me of me.” Wow. Really? I remind a girl of herself? I decided then and there that I really had to get to know this girl. We don’t get a lot of time to mingle, though, since I’m always backstage and she’s always in the pit playing her oboe. (I don’t know if I can handle a long-distance relationship!) But unlike the girls in the cast, when I’m talking to the oboist I don’t have to worry about whether or not we’re “in character.” There’s just one problem: her name. I wouldn’t normally write a girl off because of her name, but in this one particular case, it actually might be an issue.

I Can’t Even Imagine!

23. September 2008 · Comments Off on I Can’t Even Imagine! · Categories: Awards, Links, News

The recipients, who must be citizens or residents of the United States, join 756 who have been named fellows since 1981. Each gets $100,000 a year for five years, with no strings attached. Calling the recipients is “the best hour of the year,” Mr. Fanton said.

Most of the winners, who are singled out for their creativity and their potential for making important future contributions, are familiar primarily to experts in their own fields, although a few in the arts have reached larger audiences: for example, Alex Ross, 40, a music critic for The New Yorker and the author of a cultural history of 20th-century music, “The Rest Is Noise”….

$100,000 a year for five years? Geesh, that’s simply beyond my comprehension. Congratulations, Mr. Ross!