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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000034.txt from 2003/08
From: "Philip McKenzie" <philclimb1@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [DR-L] Star Trek Experience
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 09:16:15 -0400
just to refine your real mission stated below: "to boldly bring the oboe to
a wider audience"
Phil
==============
I won the Creation Entertainment, Star Trek Idol Talent Search! What a kick!
The physical prize was a $1000.00 gift certificate for Creation
Entertainment
merchandise including admission to future conventions.
But the real prize is greater realization of my mission to bring the oboe to
a wider audience. Communicator Magazine has agreed to publish a two page
article on the relationship of the oboe to Star Trek. I'll have to write the
thing
myself, so help me out friends, I'll need all the suggestions as to what to
include besides the obvious John DeLancie and Data connections. If anyone
has
knowledge of how the oboe was used in any episodes to convey emotion or
whatever, please let me know.
For those of you who asked for details about the experience, here are some:
There were several good omens to begin with. The woman who was in charge of
the 8 finalists, said that the oboe is her favorite instrument. At 10:30 AM,
the alloted rehearsal time on the day before the event, she informed all of
us
individually, that rehearsals had been cancelled due to too much going on,
and
that we would have a sound check at 8 PM, just prior to the contest, and
that
would be it. I told her I had to get into the room to check my reeds, and
she
completely and sympathetically understood and escorted me into the huge
ballroom where the contest would take place. The sound engineer, who was
busy back
stage setting things up for the convention, told me that he had been an oboe
player in high school. I was told that I had 5 minutes to check my reeds,
which
turned into about 25 minutes, and a good thing too, because none of them
worked in that room until I fixed them!
The competition was pretty fierce. All singers. Everything from a Beverly
Crusher (The Next Generation Doctor) look-alike singing "Queen Of The Night"
from
Mozart's The Magic Flute, to a guy dressed as a Klingon singing Tom
Leherer's
"The Masochism Tango". One ruddy complectioned guy who described himself as
being of Scottish decent did an imitation of Louis Armstrong singing "What A
Wonderful World" so expertly, that had you heard but not seen you would have
thought Louis was in the room. I regret that I didn't learn the names of the
other contestants. I was surprisingly, the only one who performed
specifically
Star Trek music.
I want to publically thank my 9 year old son, who guided me through all the
Star Trek music. He sang the tunes to me repeatedly, and then, overhearing
me
practising, he demanded subtlety and made inumerable corrections in both my
rhythm and melody lines. He also advised me what the fans would not like as
regards some of the transitional extended techniques that I had chosen to
use. Even
at the last minute, I was following his advice and changing things.
The room was so over air conditioned that we were all trembling with cold
more than with anxiety backstage, and I could hardly move my fingers. I can
not
tell you all how much I appreciate having the greenline oboe. The only thing
that I was absolutely certain of, was that my oboe would neither gurgle nor
crack.
There were 4 judges: Janet Kelley Burke, writer of Voyager scripts and
columnist; Larry Nemecek, editor of Star Trek Communicator Magazine; J.G.
Hertzler, actor who played the Klingon, Martok; and Robert O'Reilly (the
actor who
played the Klingon, Gowron). The whole thing was crafted after the show
American
Idol, and after each perfomance, we were interviewed and the judges
commented
on our performances.
Janet said that when I was introduced as an oboe player, she cringed, and
that she was absolutley blown away and had no idea that the oboe was capable
of
what she had heard.
My husband reported that when the time came for the judges to discuss
things
among themselves, he could hear people in the audience saying "oboe, oboe".
The maximum points a contestant could recieve was 10. I received three 10's
and a 12.
Almost everyone I met during the convention, whether actor, employee of
Creation Entertainment, or Star trek fan, used to play the clarinet.
Live long and prosper. I'll get some photos to my website soon and I'll
hopefully record the piece before I forget it.
Thanks again for all the good wishes. They made a diffference!
Brenda Schuman-Post
