Richard Woodhams Masterclass continued…

Thursday July 31 2008

So the masterclass ended with about 20 minutes left to spare, and I managed to get in a few questions that I had been pondering about for quite some time.

I prefaced the first question by stating, “Every year you hear a hundred fantastic young oboists with perfect technique and—” to which he cut me off right there by shooting back. “No. Really. I really don’t.” while shaking his head in disbelief. The group had a momentary chuckle about his well-timed answer. I continued to ask my question of what he looks for in a student when he chooses a student to attend Curtis. Mr. Woodhams seemed to ponder this question, and wasn’t sure how to answer it, but he did say several things that eluded to an answer. He mentioned that he looked for a student who had something to say musically, rather than playing everything on the page. (I couldn’t help thinking he was looking for Simon Cowell’s “It” factor, but I shook this thought off.) He continued to explain that all of us have innate musical ability but some simply have more. So I guess he’s looking for musicality.

The last thing he said was that he just looked for “a good person”. Hm— a good person who can play their pants off I suppose.

The second question I got to ask (since nobody else seemed to jump in with a question) was how he had changed his sound/setup during the move from the Academy of Music to the Kimmel Center. He mentioned that he didn’t realize how oboe-friendly the Academy was until he had moved out. The Academy was infamously (yes Patty INFAMOUS…!) known for being acoustically dead, but the oboe sound would carry out in a pure and clean sound. When he moved to the Kimmel Center, he mentioned the piccolo sound seemed like it would come from the left of him when the piccolo player would be to the right. He also mentioned that he STILL… hadn’t figured out a setup for the Kimmel Center that he felt comfortable with.

One other question I remember was that someone asked what his reed setup was like, to which he sarcastically replied, “Um— Donax Cane, 47 millimeter Stevens 2 pro staple, nylon thread—” at which the group laughed again. He did mention that he used a Mack Pfeiffer tip, and felt that anything narrower would do the oboe a disservice and one would “lose something from the oboe sound”. I’m still pondering what this “something” might be, but it was worth noting.

MQOD

Thursday July 31 2008

“Imagine a water glass. If you hit it on the side, it can make a sound. But if you take a thin crystal wine glass and hit it, it can ring and make a beautiful sound. That’s what an oboe reed should be like.”

- John de Lancie, as retold by Laila Storch

Read the Rest

IDRS Day 5, The good, the great, and the Bizarre.

Friday July 25 2008

Day 5 went by in  whirl. I marched around the exhibitions with Mr. Weber and went through a bunch of instruments to hear his opinion. Previously, he had said that he thought Howarth XLs were “lovely instruments”, but was concerned about giving up that much flexibility. This time he more than enthusiastic about them, and I was glad to hear it, because an XL is obvously in my immediate future as Adam will be selling me one soon when I get the funds together.

I did get to hear three recitals. One of them was the Gillet Young Artist Competition winner. This year was the first year of this competition, which will occur every other year (when the Gillet competition is for bassoon, the young artist competition will be for oboe). The restrictions are under 22, compared to the regular Gillet competition which has an age limit of 25 or 26 or something. He played beautifully, far beyond his years, and I found it very inspiring.

Another recital I enjoyed very much was Nancy Ambrose King’s recital, in which she played a Jazzy piece to open it, followed by the Villa Lobos duet with Jeffrey Lyman. I really enjoyed her performance, and was rather surprised by her sound, which I found to be quite different than the previous recordings that I had heard of her.

Another recital I went to, which I shall not name the performer, was bizarre. The first piece the oboist played was relatively the simplest and most straight forward, the Bach little g-minor sonata. The performer seemed to let it get out of control in areas; pitch, technically; even putting their pages out of order and having to momentarily stop in the middle, reshuffle papers, and continue. Despite the rocky beginning, the performer went on to put on a technical clinic in true Pasculli-like manner. Certainly not my preference of playing style (loud, brash, in your face, “wah wah”-ish) but you had to respect the performance.

IDRS Day 4… BAD news…

Thursday July 24 2008

So today was the David Weiss Masterclass, which I was originally supposed to play in. Unfortunately, I had to cancel out when I found out that I wasn’t going with Mr. Weber to Arizona, at which point I contacted the convention hostess.

I wasn’t able to attend it today, but I heard that he actually called me out after all of the other participants finished. Apparently, nobody told HIM… that I wasn’t performing. So I had several people come up to me later in the day asking where I was, and why David Weiss was calling me out to play! How embarassing!

Well, my oboe hasn’t been sealing very well, so I showed it to John Peterson of RDG… who made one small fix on my low C#, but he cited some other places that needed repairs, and quoted me $400 to get them all fixed. What a bum! I guess we’ll have to wait and see how much money I’ll have by the end of the conference.

Tonight, Martin Schuring played two Telemann concertos back to back. Wow, that man can use his air in beautiful ways,  and I’m so impressed by how he produces the sound and is able to manipulate the musical line. It’s great to hear him in person, and have the opportunity to hear him so much. i think I’ve heard him 3 days in a row. Tomorrow, he’ll be teaching his Baroque music masterclass (another one that I was supposed to play on, before my unfortunate cancellation). I’m looking forward to it. He’s such a friendly guy, he always insist I simply call him “Martin” rather than “Mr. Schuring” or “Professor Schuring”. It always makes me blush!

IDRS Day 3

Wednesday July 23 2008

Wow. It’s 1:30 am and I’m exhausted, but I couldn’t go to bed without documenting what I remember of today.

Today was the first day all of the vendors opened up their stands. I bought a couple of knives and little trinkets for friends back home. I also tried a BUNCH… of oboes, of which I’ll do my best to summarize.

• Lorees are Lorees, and they haven’t changed much.
• Covey classic felt great. the other Covey also felt good, ut the classic had more flexibility in it which I liked a bit more.
• I liked the Marigaux’s 901, but not the 2001. The Marigaux 2009 (Clear plastic) plays REALLY… well! Unbelievably well in fact, and has great tone. The Marigaux with the short top joints was okay, but didn’t keep my interest.
• I didn’t like the Bulgeroni’s very much. They all seemed quite stuffy.
• The Rigoutats played very nicely, and I liked that they had a great scale, good flexibility, and nice tone. There were some consistently odd tuning issues I had with them (sharp high A, REALLY… flat middle C) that were odd, but could be reamed out.
• The Buffet Greenlines felt better than they did previously. It felt more responsive to me, and less “thick”
• Howarth XLs are definitely some of the best instruments on the market. I also really liked Howarth’s standard S5 model, and would pick it over any AK.

The big surprises were:

• The Fossati has a new model out. There were four out, and I really liked one. In fact, after I left, Richard Woodhams walked over and was drawn to the same one I was. He stood there playing on it for 20 minutes or so, and I saw him write his name on the “contact info” sheet. Apparently I wasn’t the only one!
• The new Yamaha 841-L Kingwood with a plastic topjoint liner was remarkable. It had one of the darkest tones of any instrument there, but still had a lot of zing in it. In fact, while trying it out, my most memorable experience occured.

I was playing a normal C major scale on the Yamaha 841-L and I hear a voice saying “Hey, you sound great on that!” I turned around, and who was standing behind me but Richard Woodhams! My jaw dropped and I wasn’t sure what to say. Apparently, it was obvious because before I could say anything more, he said, “No really! I’m not trying to flatter you! You really sound truly beautiful!” to which I managed to mutter, “Thank you sir!” I’m not sure what he heard in my normal C major scale, but apparently he liked what he heard. Later, I told Mr. Weber this, and he just said, “Wow, he doesn’t say things like that.”

Speaking of Richard Woodhams, the masterclass went well. He emphasized rhythmic integrity in a syncopated Beethoven 6 excerpt, saying, “Don’t confuse good phrasing with bad rhythm.” The next girl played Brahms 2 mvt III…, and he was just trying to get her to do more with it, such as taking soloistic risks. The third girl played Mahler 3 Mvt. II, and talked about the importance of having a good reed for the solo. The last thing he said about the solo was, “I could stand up here and talk about it for some more time, but you really just need to make sure you get a good reed!” Finally, the last girl played Schubert Symphony 9 mvt II, where he encouraged her to play with more snap. He insisted that the first grace note be faster than a 32nd note in order to set the tone for the “snappy” character.

I also attended the “Curtis Spirit of 76” recital, featuring Robert Stevenson, Martin Schuring, Harold Smoliar, and Christopher Millard. That concert was hilarious, as they were obviously just more interested in having a good time that looking good. On the first piece, Martin Schuring was putting his pages in order, before finally announcing to the audience, “Um— I’ll be right back.” as he ran off to find his missing page. Harold Smoliar just rolled his eyes, and said, “Obviously some things never change!” The crowd had a good laugh. Martin came back and gave a little speech on how they had all been at Curtis together during 1976, and that they had discovered the previous day after having lunch together, that their maturity levels had not changed one bit. The audience roared and with that, the recital began! It was a fun recital, and they were obviously having a lot of fun together.

Tonight’s concert featured a Handel double concerto arranged for oboe and English Horn, performed by Stevenson and Smoliar, which was great to hear, and Carolyn Hove playing a bunch of English Horn pieces. Mr. Weber, who was sitting next to me gave Stevenson some of the highest praise I’ve ever heard Mr. Weber give to anyone, saying he sounded the most like de Lancie of anyone he’d heard at the convention.

Tomorrow is going to be a great concert; Martin Schuring playing 2 Telemann concertos!