Adventures of Cooper and his oboe, Barbara.

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.

“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

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.

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!

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!

I’ve been here at IDRS for two days and the memories are piling up. I’m having a great time hanging around with my buddies Adam Shapiro, Peter Hurd and his wife Chris, and Mr. Weber who showed up for a couple of days.

Adam and I were having lunch in the student union this afternoon and Laila Storch came and found us and had  a nice chat. She’s so brilliant, and we spoke some more about DMA dissertations. Then she ran off to catch a recital and Gordon Hunt started talking to me from a nearby table, so we joined him for a while. What a nice guy! He was debating whether to have that second Taco Bell burrito or not (which he eventually opted not to, a good choice considering the concert he had to play later!)

Adam and I sat around at the Howarth table with Michael Britton and played a bunch of XL’s. Adam picked one out, which means I will be buying one of his others, which I really fancy.

The concert tonight was AMAZING. There were a lot of good performances, but the two that stood out was the Concerto in D minor RV 535 by Vivaldi for two oboes and strings, performed by Christian Schmitt and Sebastian Gott. Those guys tore the heck out of that piece, it was really amazing to hear, and they followed it up with a mind blurring encore. I was sitting next to Mr. Weber and Evelyn McCarty and we were all just baffled by their fingerings.

The other performance that left me boggled, and brought the house to it’s feet was a piece called Symphonie Concertante in F Major for two ooes and Orchestra by Francois Joseph Garnier, performed by Richard Woodhams (of the Philadelphia Orchestra) and Gordon Hunt. The piece was also mind boggling, as it seemed to require all of the tricks; double tonguing, circular breathing, and blistering fingers that even made Mr. Weber chuckle. Those two men have such different styles, and sounds that contrast each other like black and white, but my GOD the artistry was unbelievable! (Michael Britton was VERY proud that they both are exclusive Howarth XL players)

There’s a lot of great performances coming up, and I can’t wait to catch more of them. But I need to get to bed now; the Richard Woodhams masterclass is in 11 hours!

I watch TV. Sports are always good. Reality shows are usually fine too. I’d probably get more out of audio books, but TV is more available.

And since I make a lot of reeds, I’ve watched a lot of TV. All of the American Idol seasons. Eli Stone. Desperate Housewives. New Amsterdam. Chuck. Project Runway. Prison Break. Rome. First 7 seasons of CSI. Then sometimes I download some oldies. Wonder Years. Twin Peaks. Nowadays, I have found that Netflix has online movies/tv shows you can watch via streaming! Currently I’m watching Quantum Leap season 4. What a great show, eh? Ranks right up there with the Wonder Years for me.

I know the standard rule is most people listen to music while making reeds but does anyone else do something different? Anyone have suggestions of movies/tv shows for me to watch? Most of the good TV shows (Lost, 24) I take the time to actually sit down and watch it.

Oh yeah, foreign films don’t work so well. Too many subtitles to read while concentrating on a reed.

Well, my summer plans have been going down the drain quickly.

Things didn’t work out for me to go down to Arizona. We crunched all of the numbers, and financially we just couldn’t make up the big difference, so I’m still stuck here in Oregon.

I was still going to meet the Webers in Utah for the IDRS convention, play on the masterclasses and work at their booth, but now they themselves are not planning on going due to some last minute family difficulties! So now it looks as though I might not even make it to IDRS.

I’m taking two classes here at the UofOregon, trying to blast out some of my requirements to leave more time during the school year for playing/practicing. They’re sucking up all of my time and energy.

I am backed up on reed orders. After returning from Seattle a week ago, I got a horrible canker sore in my mouth, too painful to play and make reeds, that that set me back a ways. I’ll be catching up on those this weekend.

Seattle was great. Adam and I had a great time at his house and he loved the reeds I brought him. My best reeds seem to be coming from my Brannen X shape, and he ordered 8 more. Meanwhile, he has an Udo Heng profiling machine that he’s trying to get a new profile based upon my scrape. If we’re able to get a good one, I will definitely be investing in one myself. I recently spoke to a music store in the Seattle area looking to replace their reed supplier, now that Jones is in legal trouble and last we heard is at least 8 months or so from production.

I also spent a good amount of time with Laila Storch at her house, asking and getting supplementary information that was not completely clarified in her book. She confirmed a lot of theories I had, and gave me  good direction in my research.

One book discussed in my Music of the Romantic Era class is the Whig Interpretation of History which basically states that it is difficult for one to recollect and document history, because man’s tendency is to take the evidence (quotes, facts, etc) out of its original context to fit their specific argument. Ms. Storch agreed with this theory, and noted that she didn’t think she was the right person to write the book, namely because she felt she was “too close to the action” to give an unbiased opinion. I find this very relevant to my research with Tabuteau, and we discussed how difficult it is for someone of my generation to discover “the real Tabuteau” since there’s been so many of his students who teach different sounds, styles, playing, concepts of air, tonguing, and reedmaking. With everyone running around saying “this is what Tabuteau taught…” to lend creedance their style of playing, it’s practically impossible for I to find the “true Tabuteau”. That said, tne thing she did state was that I was right to listen to de Lancie. As she put it, “He probably got the most complete picture, but not the intensity in the upper register that Tabuteau had.”

Back to writing this paper. These classes are killing me.

“There is so much talk about music, and so little is said. I believe that words are not at all up to it, and if I should find that they were adequate I would stop making music altogether.”

-Felix Mendelssohn, Berlin, October 15, 1842

Funny how some things don’t change much.