oboeinsight

I’m home from the WindSync concert I had written about earlier. What fun it was. These musicians are pretty darn fine! I’m glad I was able to catch one of their three bay area events … they’ll be in San Francisco on Monday and in San Jose on Tuesday, in case you want to try and hear them. (The latter is, if I understood correctly, and improvisational sort of thing, done at an art gallery. I’m not sure if they are improvising on art they see there or what … maybe one of them will read this and fill us in!)

All five musicians were great: Garret Hudson on flute, Kevin Pearl on oboe, James Johnson (from San Jose!) on clarinet, Tracy Jacobson on bassoon and Anni Hochhalter on French horn. They have “chops”, as we like to say. They are musical. They move. Heck, they even talk. They played Beethoven (Ode to Joy arrangement), a movement of the Ibert WWQ, a movement of Maslanka’s third quintet, two movements of Opus Number Zoo by Berio, and ended with their arrangement of West Side Story, but called “WindSync Story” … and no one died at the end. How ’bout that? On the program the Beethoven wasn’t listed and instead it was Mozart’s Twinkle Twinkle variations, so during the question and answer period someone asked about that, and suggested we could all do with an encore so they then played the Mozart. It was all incredibly fun and delightful!

When I arrived at the hall I saw old friends and a current colleague (Hi Bob! Hi Pam! … and Hi to the Barnes although they haven’t a clue about this blog.) After, when I went to talk to the quintet members, I also met several people I’ve “met” via this blog. I LOVE when that happens! (Hi Vladimir! Hi Daniel! Hi David!) Having this blog has really blessed me with some wonderful “live and in person” meetings.

So bravi tutti to WindSync, and may your travels go well, your concerts be fantastic, and your audiences blessed as much as we were!