Skip to main content

Speaking to the Students

The city of South Bend has a little welcome session for incoming freshmen. The event makes a lot of sense, as we have 4 big colleges here but little in the way of a "strip" for them to hang out on. We are a grown-up town that happens to have a huge number of students here 9 months of the year, and they mostly keep themselves to themselves - perhaps having an introduction to the local businesses might encourage some of them to venture off their campuses and join in the community.

Apparently the Symphony gets a chance to speak every year, and this week I was asked to do the honors. Never one to pass up being the center of attention, I was right there. My speech was perhaps a little overwritten - but they sat there and took it, and hey! Maybe some of them will consider coming out to hear us! Also, I managed to keep from talking exclusively about ME and my AMAZING October CONCERTO, which I thought was just awfully selfless of me.

Hi, Everyone! My name is Jennet Ingle, and I am the Principal Oboist for the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. I am here to talk to you about coming to the symphony during your out of school hours. And I suspect that some of the reasons you wouldn't come include the expense and the perceived irrelevance, and if it's not those, maybe it's just a teeny hint of snobbery because you come here from a larger town with a "better" orchestra. I'd like to address these concerns.

You can attend the symphony for $8 as a student, or purchase a subscription for 50% off the regular price. How many here are Notre Dame students? We do three concerts right on your campus, at the gorgeous DeBartolo Center, and you can walk there. It's cheaper than a movie, and the popcorn isn't nearly as expensive. OK, there's no popcorn at all, but you can buy wine at the intermission. OK, you probably can't, because you are freshmen, but come anyway.

This orchestra is a regional orchestra in a medium-sized town. BUT that is not the same as being a community orchestra. Everyone here has won a nationally advertised audition, and although the SBSO is not a full-time orchestra, most of its members are full-time professional musicians who make their living playing with numerous groups like this and by teaching. Many of our musicians come in from Chicago, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and even farther afield. We have degrees and advanced degrees in this art form, and we have players here who are simply world-class.

Why should you come? I'll tell you why. Because it is an experience. You can turn off your smartphone for two hours and be with a person you like or alone with your thoughts. You can sit in a hall and watch 60 real people working as hard as they can to bring you something special. Live music happens only once. You might hear one of us make a mistake, or you might hear one of us have a spectacular, magical night. You don't have to have a degree in music to enjoy what we do, but like any hobby you can get into it as deeply as you want. Maybe you just want to close your eyes and drift along with the music of a great and intelligent composer. Maybe you want to watch Trevor with an intense and steely gaze because you played clarinet in high school and want to see how he does what he does. Maybe you want to follow along with a score hoping to catch mistakes, and criticize them later in your blog. Your mind can wander or you can focus on the conducting or whether the strings are bowing together or whatever you want. In any case, during that two hours you are off the grid, and we are taking you to 19th century Vienna, or Paris, or post-war LA. You can leave feeling transported - and all for less than the cost of a movie ticket.

What you don't know about our symphony is that although the orchestra as an institution is in many ways a museum, the people on stage are truly passionate about what they do. We love to bring this music to you, and to share what we do with you. Please come. Thank you.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Zoe's Musical Beginnings

I've mentioned before that I started out on the piano by figuring out melodies.  Connecting notes and trying to learn how they worked.  I'm fascinated to observe that Zoe's initial approach to the instrument is totally different from mine. She sits at our new piano and plays random notes, and tells us what to feel.  If she is playing slowly then the music is sad, and we should cry. When we are "crying" she either gets up and hugs us so we feel better (so awesome!) or bangs faster, to indicate that the music is now happy and we should dance.  Her other piano game is accompanying herself - she plays "chords" in alternating hands while she "sings" the ABC song or Camptown Races or Sesame Street.  She makes us sing along.  She loves it when we clap at the end.  When I was little I wanted to know how music worked. Although I make my living as a performer now, I learned about the interpersonal aspects of music later.  Her immediate interest is in ...
2 comments
Read more

Cleaning Your Reeds

Updated: I've posted a video of my plaque cleaning technique HERE ! Oboe reeds are made from organic material, and over time it is inevitable that they will age and change. The first few days of change are usually quite welcome, as you break the reed in by playing and the opening gradually settles down to something you can be comfortable with and the response becomes more and more predictable.  You might even hit a plateau where it appears to be perfectly consistent and reliable for several days! But after that, the reed seems to be on a constant gradually accelerating downslope, until it eventually collapses into a sharp, non-responsive, mushy mess. We can rejuvenate the reed during this time by cleaning it, and can often extend its life as well! There are three good ways to do this. First, least invasively, you can just run some fresh water through and over the reed AFTER you play each time.  Go ahead and rinse that reed in the sink, shake it as dry as possible, a...
6 comments
Read more

Knife Sharpening

I've gotten a lot of questions on this topic, and the most recent querent prompted me to make a video to demonstrate.  You can find that  HERE . Knife sharpening seems to strike terror into many hearts.  And it's little wonder.  Many famous oboists have gone on record as saying that a sharp knife is the most important aspect of reed making. People have entire systems of stones and strops and rods set up to sharpen their knives. And it is important, of course it is - but I don't believe that you need your knife to be razor-like, or objectively the sharpest blade of any in your home.  The reed knife has one job - scraping cane off in precision ways - and it has to be sharp enough for that, and sharpened optimally for that purpose.  More than that is overly fussy for my taste. This is not to say that I allow my knife to be dull.  A dull knife forces you to put too much pressure on the reed and can cause cracking. Obviously it can lead to terribly inc...
7 comments
Read more