ProneOboe

Oboe, reeds, music.  That’s my mantra as I leave home, for every gig, every time.  I have to see or put my hands physically on each part of that equation before I pull out of my driveway.  Occasionally, when I’ve neglected to hit my checklist, I’ve pulled over before getting on the expressway just to make perfectly sure.  I don’t know how I happened to forget to check Saturday morning. We moved into our new house 10 days ago.  I’ve been keeping a lot of details in my head, things like gas and internet appointments, address change forms, and exactly which box Zoe’s snow pants are in. Our first Musicians for Michiana concert is coming up in two weeks and my mind is full of rehearsals, newsletters, press releases, and programming insights.  I was working on a scheduling email for my students.  I had decided to leave extra early for my gig this morning to return some library books and check the mail at the old house.  All of that left me not very foc...

This weekend the South Bend Symphony has a chamber concert.  We’ll be in the lovely DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at Notre Dame, and we’ll play a great Haydn Symphony - 103, one of the famous late ones - and a very neat concerto by Darius Milhaud, featuring our principal percussionist.  I was looking over my music yesterday and I’m delighted to be working with real non-Christmas repertoire, and to have to sweat a little bit over the notes.  It’s pleasant and fun to learn challenging music. We’re also performing Rossini’s Italian Girl in Algiers Overture, and as I opened my folder I remembered the first time I ever played it. I was in high school. Junior year, or maybe sophomore. I don't recall whether we were sitting in the school orchestra or the youth orchestra - it could even have been an all-county or all-state kind of group. I know I was sitting second oboe, and the outstanding Johanna Cox was first.  The piece opens with an eight bar setup to an slow, opera...

Zoe is five, and irresponsible in the way that young kids are.  If I send her to clean her room or get dressed to go outside, there’s no way that it will get done without direct supervision.  Sometimes toothbrushing goes all right independently, and specific, fun chores like feeding the cat, when I remind her - but she’s not ready for adulthood yet.  I woke up too early yesterday morning.  Well, I had set an extra alarm to make sure that I got up - and I got up to the wrong one, the early one.  It felt terrible.  I had come in from teaching at a reasonable hour, but by the time Steve and I got caught up over a lovely glass of wine and by the time I had finished winding up 12 more reeds, it was late, and I was tired, and when my 6:30 alarm went off I forgot that it was the pre-alarm and I got up and headed for the kitchen, with Zoe trailing gamely behind me. I started the kettle boiling for coffee, and then I noticed the oven clock, and realized that I could...