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Courtesy of my great friend, Ben Opie. This is some double reed fun to start the week off right!

J. Haydn - Oboe Concerto C-Dur 1st Movement

This is a post for my high school freshman student, A. We are testing out some solo pieces for her and this is one of the possibilities. Listen and enjoy the Haydn Oboe Concerto in C major...

I'm here... kind of!

Sorry for being a MIA oboe blogger for these first couple of weeks of February! I have been in and out of the Phantom pit, felt kind of funky health-wise (nothing serious), and of course have just been the usual level of busy.

I am brought back to you by a fun email that I received this morning from a friend (also a contractor of fun gigs of the not-typical-oboe-music kind)!

I have heard this story before... but that doesn't make it any less funny, and also a great reminder that nobody's perfect!

This is what I received...

Okay, the Toscanini story. Absolutely true. He was rehearsing the NBC
Symphony for the weekly Sunday morning radio concert . Halfway through a
movement of something or other, he stopped, frowned and said, "Will the
second oboe please play softer at measure seventy-two." They began again.
And again, Toscanini pulled up short, slammed his baton down on the stand,
and, pissed off, growled, "Will the second oboe please play softer starting
at measure seventy-two!" With that, the first oboist stood up, raised his
hand and said, "Maestro, forgive me, but the second oboe is not here yet,
he's late." Toscanini's face inverted as he growled, "Well, godammit, when
he gets here, tell him to play softer at seventy-two!"

Oboe Taxes

We are getting all of our tax documents lined up and going over them, as I am sure most all of you are as well. My husband is very diligent about this process, which is good because I am not. The best I can do is save all of my receipts and try to keep a log of where I travel to for work.

Over lunch, I racked up the countless odds and ends that I purchased in order to maintain my oboe studio, and perform-- things like music, staples, thread, turkey feathers, and of course cane all popped up as I tabulated away. I was expecting to see a scary number at the end, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting which surprised me! I think that I have always been the kind of person to make a "big deal" out of not-so-big-deal things, and then playing the oboe came along which lends itself to that dramatic tendency anyway :)

In total as I looked back over my mileage, all of the places I drove to, concerts and shows I played, students I taught, it seemed very worthwhile indeed. On paper, I would say 2010 looked pretty good!

This week I am kind of enjoying a taste of the good life- playing Phantom in the PM and relaxing a bit in the AM, twist my arm, go on :)