I have been working with the Oboe Path for a couple years now, and one of the focuses is on avocational musicians. As opposed to people who consider
playing their only job. I guess I feel like I fit in the cracks between, I usually do get paid for playing, but it certainly would not be enough to support myself without additional funding from my engineer partner!
It is interesting to consider what playing the Oboe means to me and whether it matters more if I get paid. On one hand, of course I want to get paid. I put a lot of time and effort into preparing and having the right equipment and techniques for any given performance. But I also play in some groups where our performances are given freely, as well as my chosen church home.
It’s a slippery slope and of course I don’t want to de-value what I’m doing by giving it away, society in this day and age already has such contempt for compensating artists. It was so clear a couple years ago at the beginning of the pandemic that the arts is what people turn to to keep their themselves, but the administration in our current government does not seem to value humans on any level.
Today I was fortunate to be asked to play for symphony day where all the fifth graders get bussed to our beautiful hall and they get to hear a little concert. I got to play Scheherazade m4 four times, and demo the English horn with the tune from Golden (Kpop Demon Hunters). Such a huge response from the kids, it was really moving, and I hope some of them are inspired to make their own art in someway.
