Brava!
Sunday May 10 2009
Today I drove up to Portland to hear a girl I know play her senior high school recital.
Jessica Woolf won the Oregon state high school championship this past year on the Strauss Concerto, and studies with Martin Hebert.
Today she played:
1. Marcello Concerto (in C minor)
2. 1st Rhapsodie from Deux Rhapsodies by Loeffler
3. Saint Saens Sonata
Intermission
4. Poulenc Trio
5. Ravel Pavane for a Dead Princess (transcribed for EH/Piano)
6. Gabriel’s Oboe
It was quite the marathon, and I was quite impressed by her technique, tone and stamina! My god that girl has chops of steel! I must say it was probably the best high school recital I’ve ever been to. Certainly the best high school OBOE… recital I’ve ever been to.
Brava Jessica!
3rd time is a charm
Saturday May 09 2009
So my new website has one major problem.
I’ve tried to write a blog entry twice and it’s automatically logged me out before I could finish my blog entry, and then when I hit the back button, it erased my entire blog entry. Twice. So here I go, Third time’s a charm.
I know I’ve been a bad little blogger here, but I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things. This past quarter (starting end of March/beginning of April) was extremely stressful, intense, and dramatic, but it looks like things are coming to a close.
At the end of March, I had my recital jury. This is a jury where I have to play most of my recital to prove whether I’m prepared or not. I did just fine, however there was a miscommunication with my pianist so she didn’t come for the Poulenc. It was a “he said she said” situation, which never really got sorted out, but the bottom line was that she didn’t show up, and the committee held me responsible. I played fine, but because of this detail they were ready to flunk my jury, call off my recital for the quarter, and force me to stick around until the Fall to finish my degree. Which didn’t sound enjoyable. Finally, after a week and a half of deliberation, they decided to pass me, and I was cleared to play my April 27th recital.
The April 27th recital was not without a bit of drama as well. Somehow, my intermission got left off, and my teacher told me I needed to just suck it up, go out there and play the recital. So I played the Poulenc Sonata, Tomasi Evocations, Marcello Concerto (in c minor) and Mozart Quartet without an intermission. And I made it somehow without falling off the reed. It was indeed a long recital for me, but I’m proud of the accomplishment, and it certainly was a test of my mental and physical stamina.
Yesterday was my final step; the oral examination. This was again with the same three committee members (my oboe professor, Prof. Wayne Bennett who is the clarinet prof and conductor of the orchestra, and Prof. Bob Ponto who is the conductor of the Wind Ensemble) and they drilled me with difficult questions. The first question was Dr. Kolb put a very modern piece for solo oboe in front of me, and told me I had 24 hours to learn. How would I go about learning it? I listed off a bunch of steps and things, but apparently what she was looking for was for me to put the metronome the kitchen table and set it to 60bpm, and sing through it five times. And honestly, I just don’t sing through my parts often enough, so of course I didn’t get that.
The next question was, “What is the role of the 1st oboe in the symphony orchestra?” This question is so open ended, and while I listed off a million answers that were right, and I did indeed say the 1st oboe needs to lead the wind section, they were looking for me to specify exactly how the leading happens. The first oboe lead the wind section because they’re always audible, and should set the standard in pitch, style (and articulation), rhythm, and be visually leading as well.
The third question was to list 10 common excerpts found on an audition list and their movements, and what was hard about them. I listed Le Tombeau, La Scala, Brahms Violin Concerto, Mendelssohn 3, Beethoven 3, Don Juan, Bach BWV… 82, Brahms 1, Tchaik 4, and Bartok Concerto for orchestra.
My final question was the story behind why the Marcello Concerto in C minor is usually attributed to Benedetto Marcello rather than Alessandro. Actually, my professor seemed to have another story other than the one I had researched, but I managed to get my way through it, and passed the test!
So I guess I will be a Master of Music now!
Ich Habe Genug! (Literally!)
Saturday February 28 2009
I’ve had enough! Finished my DMA… audition at Arizona State University about 40 minutes ago, and while I didn’t do great, I didn’t do terribly. It’s so dry down here compared to Oregon, that if I didn’t constantly suck on my reed, it’d dry out and close up very quickly. I played 2nd and 3rd movement of the Poulenc, 1st and 2nd movement of the Mozart Quartet, and Nigeria from Tomasi.
The whole experience was quite frantic. I couldn’t find a pianist until Thursday morning, which was stressful enough. I called about 10 pianists before I finally found one available. After the Allan Vogel Masterclass, I drove up to Portland and got there at 4:45 to catch a 5:25 flight, which got me into Phoenix at 9pm. I had a rental car by 10:00pm and went directly to the music school where I rehearsed with my pianist until midnight. Woke up at 7am, ate breakfast, went to the school and checked reeds, started each movement with my pianist, and played the audition at 10:00am. Whoo!
Today I’ll drop on by with Mr. Weber, and maybe dinner with him or Hannah Selznick or both. Tomorrow at 8:30am I fly out and should arrive at Portland around 10:30, where I’ll drive down to Eugene and play my 4pm concert!
Hm— Spring break is looking really good right about now—
Busy Week
Monday February 23 2009
I’m not sure if anyone is reading on this new site, but if you are, leave me a message and let me know!
This past week has been crazy, and this next week is even crazier. Today (Monday) I went in early and got 1 hour of practicing done at 9am. Then I went to Bible study until 10:00 am. Then I finished up my 12 page paper at noon and turned it in and gave a 1 hour presentation on Schwantner’s usage of Music, Text, and Gesture in “New Morning for the World” for my 3 hour seminar course on Music and Gesture. Then I had 1 hour to respond to emails before I went to rehearsal until 5:30! My mind is barely functioning, but it has to. Because—
I have a million reed orders. Not a million, only about 40 reeds I need to make.
I am playing on a masterclass with Alan Vogel on Friday, in which I am playing the entire Mozart Quartet for him. The masterclass goes from 11-1pm
And then at 1pm I’m driving up to Portland and dropping off my car where a friend will drive me to the airport so that I can jump on a flight at 5:00pm to Arizona.
And then I get in at 8:30, where I’ll pick up my luggage, pick up the rental car and drive to my hotel in Chandler.
And then I go to bed and hopefully wake up at 8:00am to check in with Arizona State to find out my audition time for the Doctoral of Musical Arts program which I am applying to.
Then I actually get to rest a bit and spend some time with Mr. Weber.
But then I get to wake up early the next morning to catch an 8:30am flight.
Which gets me into Portland around 10:30am. At which time hopefully my friend will pick me up and take me to my car.
So that I can drive back down to Eugene (2 hrs) so that I can play the 4pm President’s Concert at the Hult Center.
Yeah. Talk about insane.
MQOD
Saturday February 21 2009
_Quick runs for the cor anglais sound even worse than they do for the oboe. Its tone is less penetrating, more veiled and deeper than that of the oboe, and is therefore not suitable for expressing the gaiety of rustic tunes. _
-Hector Berlioz, Treatise on Orchestration
HA! If only composers had taken his advice!