Wow, do I have updates.
First off, I finally got in touch with Robert Sheena (of the BSO and BU's English horn and oboe professor, in case you're new to this topic, which I find hard to believe), and a date for a lesson is set for late April. (Finally.) The actual time hasn't been set yet; I'll be contacting him again about two weeks before to set up the specifics. I'm beyond excited, and alternately beyond terrified - it's all dependent upon whether I'm feeling confident in my abilities or not.
At the moment, I'm in between. I had a horrific concert today (the audience wasn't critical though; it's hard to describe, but they appreciate and clap for anything as though you're Garrick Ohlsson), largely courtesy of my reed. Oh, my God. That reed. It worked fine yesterday, though not as well as I'd liked, but today was just bad. I wasn't unprepared or under-prepared, I was just highly betrayed by my reed. Again. I'm going back to the same place next week, and am going to fix my reed before I go, to redeem myself. I need two solo pieces (no accompanist available then) so I think I'm going to be doing the first Metamorphosis by Britten and then the Tristan and Isolde solo for English horn, just so I can actually prove I got to All-State not by a mistake. I swear I didn't.
(I think one of the most embarrassing parts of that concert was the fact that my teacher was finally able to come to a recital and decided to go to that one, the first one he'd ever been to. At least, as an oboist, he understood that sometimes the reed just will not work under any circumstances.)
I had another recital, this time at the conservatory, this past Saturday as well. This was oboe and English; the final movement of the Strauss concerto for oboe and the first movement of the Wolf-Ferrari for English horn. I got many compliments that I'd never received before, despite it being not the best concert I ever played. (I thought it was god-awful, but others seemed to disagree.) The coach for my quintet, who's also the assistant dean, said I phrased very well and it seemed to come naturally; the executive director said I'm a natural on English horn.
I don't know what to do with myself with all this praise.
It doesn't sound like much, but this woman - the executive director - is rarely one to give compliments. It's all somewhat dampened by today's performance (I'm not going to even go into it; it'll discredit me from ever being able to say I'm a decent musician) but I'm still pleased.
Also, I was waitlisted for both the woodwind ensemble and oboe workshop at Tanglewood. This bothered me a lot at first, but I'm preoccupied enough by Juilliard auditions and NYSSMA and the fact that in 40 days I'm meeting Robert Sheena to really think about it. I'll hear by April 13 if I get moved into one of the programs. My fingers (and toes and eyes and anything else that's crossable) are crossed.
All in all, though, a good week. I kind of liked how I didn't have to pay much attention to schoolwork and was able to concentrate on music. It was weird, not having much homework and being ahead of schedule on projects, but I think I ought to keep this thing up.
First off, I finally got in touch with Robert Sheena (of the BSO and BU's English horn and oboe professor, in case you're new to this topic, which I find hard to believe), and a date for a lesson is set for late April. (Finally.) The actual time hasn't been set yet; I'll be contacting him again about two weeks before to set up the specifics. I'm beyond excited, and alternately beyond terrified - it's all dependent upon whether I'm feeling confident in my abilities or not.
At the moment, I'm in between. I had a horrific concert today (the audience wasn't critical though; it's hard to describe, but they appreciate and clap for anything as though you're Garrick Ohlsson), largely courtesy of my reed. Oh, my God. That reed. It worked fine yesterday, though not as well as I'd liked, but today was just bad. I wasn't unprepared or under-prepared, I was just highly betrayed by my reed. Again. I'm going back to the same place next week, and am going to fix my reed before I go, to redeem myself. I need two solo pieces (no accompanist available then) so I think I'm going to be doing the first Metamorphosis by Britten and then the Tristan and Isolde solo for English horn, just so I can actually prove I got to All-State not by a mistake. I swear I didn't.
(I think one of the most embarrassing parts of that concert was the fact that my teacher was finally able to come to a recital and decided to go to that one, the first one he'd ever been to. At least, as an oboist, he understood that sometimes the reed just will not work under any circumstances.)
I had another recital, this time at the conservatory, this past Saturday as well. This was oboe and English; the final movement of the Strauss concerto for oboe and the first movement of the Wolf-Ferrari for English horn. I got many compliments that I'd never received before, despite it being not the best concert I ever played. (I thought it was god-awful, but others seemed to disagree.) The coach for my quintet, who's also the assistant dean, said I phrased very well and it seemed to come naturally; the executive director said I'm a natural on English horn.
I don't know what to do with myself with all this praise.
It doesn't sound like much, but this woman - the executive director - is rarely one to give compliments. It's all somewhat dampened by today's performance (I'm not going to even go into it; it'll discredit me from ever being able to say I'm a decent musician) but I'm still pleased.
Also, I was waitlisted for both the woodwind ensemble and oboe workshop at Tanglewood. This bothered me a lot at first, but I'm preoccupied enough by Juilliard auditions and NYSSMA and the fact that in 40 days I'm meeting Robert Sheena to really think about it. I'll hear by April 13 if I get moved into one of the programs. My fingers (and toes and eyes and anything else that's crossable) are crossed.
All in all, though, a good week. I kind of liked how I didn't have to pay much attention to schoolwork and was able to concentrate on music. It was weird, not having much homework and being ahead of schedule on projects, but I think I ought to keep this thing up.
No comments:
Post a Comment