Oboe Audition

Everyone knows that auditions only come at the worst possible time, and this one came along unexpectedly in the middle of all my madness! It is in Little Brother's Town, about 4 hours away, so I'm not really hoping to win the audition, but I'd love to get "second" place - where they may call me to sub a couple times a year. Also, it is a good thing to update one's resume and go over those excerpts we all know and love... I can't believe the last time I updated my resume was 2005! Seems like I must have another one around somewhere, but that is the latest one on my computer. I have finally removed all the school ensembles from my list of groups, and it still looks pretty full. I sound impressive on paper anyway! And it is exciting to realize that some of those nasty excerpts are lurking around in the back of my brain still. I'm hoping to get through everything without a major crash. The only excerpt I have never done is the 2nd oboe part of Brahms 2nd symphony, mvt 2. All low articulations very soft - my worst thing! But amazingly I played it great tonight, we'll see what the reed Gods have decreed for next week.

Back in the pit

Doing the show Crazy for You, must say I thought it would not be very hard, and in some ways it's not, but it has certainly been a challenge! I'm playing parts of books 3 and 5, so my instrumentation is oboe, English horn, clarinet, and bari sax.  I like playing the bari part even though it's a pain to put the two books together. Especially for my sub, who can only play clarinet and sax. No one else in town can cover the oboe parts, guess that's a sort of job security!

Of course one show is not enough, i'm missing opening night of Crazy, because the symphony is playing our family concert. We are doing PDQ Bach's  Beethoven's fifth - it's a sportscast (you can find on YouTube) funny funny funny. During the cadenza I get to have an altercation with the conductor, and I win, while he gets a 42 bar penalty! 

It always seems like there are so many gigs all at once, and then nothing for months. Next week, between shows for crazy for you shows (5/week for 5 weeks), is the Black & White Ball for the symphony. The chamber orchestra plays big-band, pops, light classical and jazz stuff– I will play oboe and bari sax.

It seems like a lot of stuff going on now, but when I read it down it doesn't look like that much. Guess I'm just tired, it is opening week for two different things after all! And of course I do nothing but play music, the rest my life goes along smoothly and perfectly.