Nick Wood Observation #1

My first observation was attending the Faculty Recital of the Conwell Woodwind Quintet on January 23rd, 2012. The Quintet consisted of Loren Lind on flute, Peter Smith on oboe, Lawrence Wagner on clarinet, Shelley Showers on French horn, and Holly Blake on bassoon. This was my first time seeing an oboe live after having started playing the oboe in class. My first impression was that it was one of my favorite sounds in the group. I like the oboe and the clarinet. They both have a unique sound that sounds almost Middle-Eastern or Indian to me. I think they both have more character than most other woodwinds. The players were all very good, as I expected from a faculty concert. My favorite pieces they played were the Debussy ones, which made up most of the recital, especially the one called La Fille Aux Cheveux de Lin. The Quintet was very good at blending together, which is something I like to hear in small ensembles with similar instruments. Its common for groups like this to sound too cluttered to me but I liked the way this group meshed.

Nick Wood Observation #2

My second observation was seeing the Masters Recital for Megan Reimer on February 23rd, 2012. This was my first time seeing an oboists recital. As opposed to the quintet I had seen before, this time I was able to notice more of what the oboist has to do to perform. It seems like hard work. One of the first things I noticed was how often she had to soak her reed. I noticed she kept her water cup on a chair right next to her so that in between pieces she could soak the reed. The playing was beautiful. I was really impressed by some of the lines she would play that seemed to go on forever. I kept thinking she was going to lose her breath. After playing the oboe for a little while I can appreciate how much she must have trained her lungs to be able to play lines like that. I cant play for very long whether its one line or separate lines. One of my favorite aspects of the oboe is the ability to shape notes and phrases with the embouchure. It gives lines a unique feel thats reminiscent of the voice. I thought Ms. Reimer did that very well.

Nick Wood Observation #3

My third observation was a visit to Mr. Martins class at Coopertown Elementary School in Bryn Mawr, PA on March 6th, 2012. The class was small, consisting of one oboist, one bassoonist, one glockenspiel player, and one child who I assume forgot their instrument and therefore just sat and didnt participate much. Mr. Martin let the teaching aid, whose name I didnt catch, do the lesson by his self. The aid started the lesson by having the students do 8th notes of Bb. He then continued to have the students make up their own patterns as well as mimic his patterns he played on the piano. One of the things I liked about what he did was that he made the students say the syllables of what they were playing, both for the tonic chord arpeggios and the dominant chord. Without over complicating things, he had them start to understand the relation between the notes and the chords. That being said, I dont like the way he taught the class. Many of the students were not correctly mimicking his patterns, and rather than work with them or show them what they were doing wrong, he just moved on. I noticed that the oboist was having a lot of trouble with fingerings and while the aid didnt stop to help him, Mr. Martin came up and worked individually with the student. Mr. Martin even grabbed his own oboe to show the student the correct fingerings. At the beginning of the lesson, the bassoonist realized he didnt have his whisper key. This affected the tone of his lower notes, which tended to squeak. The bassoon seemed like a particularly difficult instrument for such a small kid.

Nick Wood Observation #4

My fourth observation happened while I was home in Washington, DC. My sister, Andrea Wood (look her up!), is an accomplished jazz singer who does shows frequently around the east coast, mostly in DC and New York. She had a show on March 9th, 2012, at the Atlas Theater in DC that featured a guest oboist. This was the first time Id even heard of an oboe playing jazz. It sounded great. The oboist and the alto saxophonist were the guests playing with my sisters regular trio consisting of her on vocals with a bass and piano. They had a unique sound that came from their harmonies. Before this I had never even considered an oboe playing jazz but after hearing them I dont see why they dont do it more often. The two woodwinds were only featured on one song but it gave me enough of an idea of how the oboe can sound in a different musical setting.

There was no pamphlet available for this performance, but its documented on my sisters website at: http://www.andreawoodmusic.com/?page_id=143 Feel free to also check out her music on iTunes!

Nick Wood Observation #5

My final observation was another Masters Recital held on March 21st, 2012. The player was Caitlin Ratzer and she is an oboist. This was my second time seeing an oboe recital and the playing was very good. One thing I couldnt help but notice, however, was how distracting her breaths were. I dont know if she had unusually loud breaths or if I had just never noticed that with other oboists but it was very distracting for me. I cant tell if its just an aspect of the instrument or if she didnt have the best breath control. It was a masters recital so I would assume she had good control. The playing was fantastic, although I thought that Megan Reimers playing was better. I dont know if it was just the breaths that ruined it for me but it was very distracting. It might have just been a way of compensating for the difficult lines she was playing.