Teaching is an honor. Teaching music is especially deep because it taps into so many different skills and emotion. Teaching is sharing. We learn about different cultures and experiences, through each other and through the composers we play. I have had students from Turkey, Ecuador, China, Japan, and through all of them I learned more […]
We all know how terrible the Covid shutdown affected live music. Fortunately in New England, a group of musicians formed the New England Musicians’ Relief Fund, https://www.nemrf.org which helps our performing musicians during a huge loss of work. This organization continues to help those of us who have still not recovered from the financial loss […]
March 2022 Finally feel confident to go out to hear live music, after the years that quietly went by during the worst of Covid shutdown. Daryl’s House Club is Daryl Hall’s venue in Pawling, NY, where they have many great groups play, and host “Daryl’s House” video shoots with his legendary friends, like Kenny Loggins! […]
Boston Ballet Orchestra February 25-March 8, 2020 Learning to relax while you play I recently had the opportunity to play principal oboe on Stravinsky’s Agon, which has a particularly challenging oboe part in the Double Pas-de-Quatre. Notice that much of it is up an octave, putting it in the squirrely fingerings for our upper register. […]
Kathy Halvorson is a great oboist, doubler, who is currently on the road with Les Miz. Her blog is on https://lifemusictouringmexico.wordpress.com/ . I asked her the same questions that I asked Paul Baron. Here are her replies. How did you get interested in music initially? When or how did you decide it would […]
Many times, we are told to practice practice practice! But what does that mean to you? How do you organize your practice time? There are many helpful books out there to help you create and then assess your practice routine. Some of these are “The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle, “Effortless Mastery” by Kenny Werner, […]
You are primarily a theater musician. What does that mean? To me, this means being skilled in a very wide range of musical styles. It’s not at all unusual to play a show with styles ranging from classical to swing, disco to klezmer, rock to Baroque, etc… And sometimes all in the same show. The […]
After returning to the pit of the Boston Opera House for Disney’s Aladdin, I was reminded of the mysterious lives of the traveling musicians. Life on the road is a very different life! I’ve asked some of my friends to answer some questions about their interesting lives and will post the answers here. Come back […]
