Skip to main content

Final Parks Concert - New Oboe!

Yesterday our outdoor concert moved indoors, due to torrential rain, and because we were inside and climate-controlled I could not resist playing my new oboe. 

Yes, I bought a new oboe.  Just a few days ago.  A Bulgheroni Opera model, and I was pretty sure I loved it - but playing alone in your room for a week is a great way to talk yourself into some doubts.  I was eager to get it out in public, just to make sure that it was a team player. 

After all, I could play the oboe in tune with my tuner, but matching with other players is another factor altogether.  Did every note have the flexibility I needed?  Would I be able to easily change the sound to blend with a flute or a trumpet or to bring a solo line forward?  Was it easy to USE, in other words?  I knew I liked it in isolation but needed to know how much it would fight me in the orchestra.

And it was great.  I know I’ll write more about this instrument as I get to know it better - but right now it seems to be giving me exactly what I wanted.  I was looking for an oboe that allowed me to project my ideas more without sounding ugly, and I feel great about the maiden voyage of this new horn.  It had a big, beautiful sound, and I had no trouble fitting in with the group. 

Also, I continue to enjoy the NISO’s summer parks concerts, and we have one more event tonight in Gary.  Details HERE.

Comments

  1. congratulations on your new oboe. I have a hazy idea of how it must feel,moving in and out of doubt and certainty-almost like getting a spouse....
    Enjoy,looking forward to hearing you together
    Dimitri

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looking forward to showing off the new baby! Thanks, Dimitri.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yay for 'shiny' new instrument! Do you use a cheaper student model when you are playing outside? I have a really nice wooden piccolo and am not even considering taking it outside. I'll probably get a plastic one should I need it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You know, I just use whatever my oldest (professional, wood) oboe is when I go outdoors. I'm pretty fatalistic about cracks, and I've never had one crack directly as a result of being outside. But I am cautious about the brand new ones...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IDRS 2014 - Day Two and OUT

I'm writing my Day Two report while all of my colleagues and friends, new and old, are well into their Day Three experience.  I was terribly sad to leave NYC, and IDRS.  In past years I've found myself sort of oboe-ed out by the third or fourth day, but I was nowhere near that point last night when I had to begin my schlep to the airport.  On the up side, I am home and spent the morning with Zoe and Steve, and I'm safely on the correct side of Lake Michigan well before my concert tonight, which was the important purpose of my travel plans - but there are SO MANY MORE great events happening at NYU.  Best of luck to everyone performing! Yesterday, among other performances, I enjoyed THREE recitals featuring music for oboe and bassoon.  Be prepared for a husband-wife recital coming down the pike in the next year or two, as I loved much of the new music that I heard.  First I enjoyed hearing ToniMarie Marchioni and two of her colleagues from the University ...

Practice+ App - and my FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY

You know how, when you are practicing, you need to have your metronome on your stand and turn it constantly up and down as you work through a technical passage?  And you also want to play in tune, and make sure you are staying consistent with your pitch.  So while your metronome is clicking away on your stand, you also have to turn half-way around to look at the screen of the big tuner which has to be plugged into the wall because it eats batteries otherwise.  And if you also want to record yourself to listen to your progress, you have to have your laptop on with the big mic plugged into it, and that’s on still another surface, so you have to move your stand around so you can orient to all three, and then your giant stack of music-in-progress falls off the stand and onto the floor and out of order and the next ten minutes are spent not practicing at all but just trying to return to normalcy. Does this sound familiar? I was sent a free promo copy (full disclosure) of an...

Ewazen Concerto This Very Weekend!

Here's the notice I just sent out about this weekend's event.   If you would like to be on my email list, please do join it in the right sidebar - I will never send spam but I will keep you well informed about my upcoming performances, with occasional emails like this.  Of course I do always mention them in this blog too, but sometimes people prefer info to be RIGHT IN THEIR INBOXES... What's going on? This Friday night, November 18 at 8 I will perform with the Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra at DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.  The piece is a great favorite of mine, Eric Ewazen's Down a River of Time .   If you haven't seen this orchestra you are in for a treat, and if you haven't heard the Ewazen then LOOK OUT! I am truly looking forward to this performance and hope to see you there!  Ticket information can be found HERE .  Please feel free to forward this notice widely! What is this gorgeous concerto about? The title of this piece comes from a...