Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Snow snow snow

Well, after a soggy brown February, we woke up to 8" new snow! And no signs of stopping yet. Kinda crazy but pretty. Jim says I should just stay home today, but I have WW5 (my quintet) and bells (which I direct) so I really have to go out. If it is really awful I can cancel bells, but I'm betting the roads will be ok by evening (for most people - EXCEPT ME!) Of course the Ks up the road have 4 wheel drive, would just hitch a ride with them except for the WW5 problem. And we have a gig coming up for that; and we haven't rehearsed since our last concert (a month ago), and who knows what is going on with our poor bassoon player (wrongly accused of inappropriate behavior with an 11 year old girl student - such a scam - even her accusation sounds ridiculous! There were 300 people in the auditorium and he "brushed against her" when she pushed into him trying to get a bingo card!!!! Of course I am all for ridding the world of evil child molesters; but this is so stupid, E is a great guy, born teacher and sooo careful of making sure there are other adults in the room...anyway, he has been on leave for 3 weeks now and my heart breaks for him. I am sad about the little girl too - what kind of warped thing is in her brain, and has anyone been planting infomation on her? So sickening that this talented teacher's career could be over because the administration doesn't have the balls to say, this is not a valid problem????!!!! Honestly, you have to believe that EVERYONE in the room brushed against EVERYONE else...I've seen this auditorium and it's not that big. And I've known E for years, would COMPLETELY trust him with my child.
Nuf said.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Morning After...

Last night I had quite a whirlwind of rehearsals - first I picked Jim up from work, then dropped him and Dan off at band rehearsal (because Jim likes to just have one car). Then I drove into town for orchestra rehearsal (La Mer!) and then back out to finish up with the band. Yikes! So many concerts so little time. Next Monday night is the orchestra concert so I can't go to band rehearsal at all, and the following Monday is the Band concert. This is interspersed with my "big" orchestra concert (next Friday) and playing in church (next Sunday).

Just realized I'm playing EH for 3 of those performances. Must be the season. I have "access" to a wonderful EH, it belongs to my former teacher who has basically loaned it to me forever! She isn't interested in selling it (although I keep trying) but for now it is the perfect situation. It is an older Loree and I love it.

My oboe is also an older (how did that happen) Loree, I bought it new in 1986. It has been great although I'm thinking it might be time for a new toy...but do I play enough to justify that sort of purchase? It is hard here in the styx (sticks? whatever) to find paying gigs, when I lived in Ohio I NEVER played unless there was compensation. But if I did that here I just wouldn't play at all. The symphony is finally paying the principals (hopefully more people next year) but it is only $30/service. Not that I'm complaining, this is the first year we got paid at all! But trying to talk to people from back east about playing is difficult - it is a different world. Even my own brother had CANNED music for his wedding...I was so sad! (although the marriage is good - don't get me wrong; I LOVE my sis-in-law)

After the big post concert (Sunday's Mozart) let-down, I am having a hard time working up to practicing. Of course, I have to play the whole Mozart in just over a month, so I really NEED to practice...just hard to get excited about it right now. And besides La Mer (with the comm orchestra - so it's not the best rendition ever) the big orchestra is not playing anything too thrilling this time around, and I'm not delighted about our May concert either (Beethoven Triple and Schumann #1 - don't know either one)

Ah well, time to break out the reeds. At least I'm not cleaning the house!

Monday, February 26, 2007

Aw, Hail!

It is hailing. Ok, now it's not. But it was really hard just a second ago! We are having really weird weather (typical February weather).

Now it is hailing again. I'm sure I will have no luck with reeds with this crazy weather (at least that's a good excuse!)

The First Post

Wow. I have been thinking of starting a blog for a while now, inspired by the book Julie & Julia (about a cooking blog), not a great book IMO, but it got me interested in blogging. Then I found a couple of blogs about the oboe which I have become ADDICTED to...and being just a bit of a diva I needed to have my own space!

Yesterday I played the third mvt of the Mozart oboe concerto for the faculty recital - this was my first "faculty" recital and I was very nervous! I would have picked something a little more fun, or easy! but since I'm playing the whole Mozart in April with the symphony I thought this would be a natural - play the hard part ahead of time, in the nice hall...not even thinking about how this is going to be the first time most of my collegues would have heard me, and all that.

But it went pretty well, not too many nerves and I actually got through all those runny passages intact! Reed was pretty good, soooo glad I chose the "lighter" of the two possibilities. I am not completely thrilled that we are doing the Mozart, it doesn't really show off my strong points (what are those again???) but this is definately a stretch for me! I have been thinking about John Mack a lot recently, and to paraphrase one of his quotes "Accept the challenges life gives you, then figure out out to meet them" I love that thought. So when the conductor approached me about playing this piece I figured, what the heck! Even though I am not likely to take any more auditions, it seems like really learning the Mozart is something every oboist should have to do. Then maybe next year (or so) I can play the Vaughn Williams!

Music things coming up for me:
Playing Quiet City at church in two weeks, we just did it on a chamber concert, so it seemed like a good thing for Lent;

Eh on La Mer with a community/college orchestra - first time I've gotten to play this! Tempos are a bit under what would be optimal, but that's probably just as well! Fun fun fun to play all that great music.

Then my orchestra (where I play first) is playing our Young Artist concert, first mvts of Tchaik vln, Rach pno, Weber clar, a bunch of popular arias and a piece by a local composer. It is kinda cool that we are doing a piece by Joan Tower that was commissioned by Ford called Made in America - they are having it performed in each state. Being the "Idaho orchestra" is probably less of an honor than being say, the Ohio orchestra (or pretty much anywhere else!) but we're excited. And they are paying us for that. More about getting paid later.

I play in a community band (warm body) with my husband (really cool trumpet guy), we have a concert in March, only piece of interest is one written by a student who was wise enough to plop in a big EH solo for me :^)

Bell choir (I am the exaulted director) is playing Were You There? in March, I'm still looking for an Easter piece.

Carousel end of March - not staged but with all pros; for a 40th anniversary of the Carousel Players. Should be great, but orch will be on stage so we have to dress up; just black but the pit in that hall is so great they let us wear ANYTHING (decent) during a regular run. The best thing is getting union scale (although I'm not in the union, just not worth it here - there aren't any union gigs)

And of course the Mozart is coming up fast (April 14)!!!

Well, I must go be a mom now. Hopefully having this blog will help me get organized! But at least I can write all my frustrations down for the ages.