 The Doublers BBoard
|
Author: oboesax
Date: 2011-12-01 14:01
OK, I'll take a shot at this. You gave me some helpful insight and suggestions regarding my daughter on another thread.
I'm not a doubler or an oboe player, but I've been around oboe most of my life. My brother played oboe/EH for the Met on contract for many years and was an oboe professor in his 20's. He studied with all the big names back then (25-35 years ago) including Ray Still, John Mack and Elaine Duvas. My daughter is a pretty good 16-year old oboe player who studies with the principal oboe player of a major U.S. symphony orchestra.
To weigh your abilities on oboe vs. all your other abilities (which appear considerable) you need to get the opinion of a top U.S. oboe player. You mentioned you studied with some players in the Chicago Symphony; surely they have given you an idea of how you rank compared to other oboe players. After my daughter's first lesson with this principal oboe player he gave me an evaluation of her playing. You are not likely to find such a person on a doubler's board.
Oboe is different than saxophone (not that I'm a saxophonist either, I'm a flutist). Symphony orchestras want their players to be young. For the first 10 years of his auditions (between ages 17 and 27) my brother was invited to every audition he applied to and made the finals over 50 times. He made the finals for the San Francisco Symphony 1st oboe slot seven times, but was never selected for the permanent position. After around age 27, he started getting invited to auditions less often, and getting eliminated sooner, after the preliminary round. One orchestra even asked him, when he was around age 35, why he wanted the job since he was apparently very successful with his own business. Another major orchestra flat out told him he was too old.
Most doublers don't play the oboe well, by oboe orchestral standards. During my daughter's lesson with the top oboe doubler in our nearest major city, he had her play the oboe for him. He told her she was better on oboe than any other doubler he'd heard, including himself. But that's because she started playing oboe when she was 9; it sounds like her primary instrument (which it is, along with sax).
You might find better reception applying for oboe slots in smaller orchestras. Then you have to weigh that against what you already have.
Out of curiousity, which international competitions did you win?
Post Edited (2011-12-02 22:34)
|
|
|
Joseph Tomasso |
2011-11-30 05:19 |
   |
Re: Switching main instruments new |
|
oboesax |
2011-12-01 14:01 |
|
Joseph Tomasso |
2011-12-02 18:38 |
|
oboesax |
2011-12-03 03:57 |
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
