Author: Jeremy Polmear
Date: 2005-01-23 18:30
Well they do, of course, but (at least in the UK) not nearly as many as girls.
I noticed this when I was making a CD for Oboe beginners - Ready, Steady, Blow! - and I wanted the four best oboists from Trinity College of Music in London. They were all girls. They said there were very few boys studying there at the moment.
So when I released the CD I put up a page on my web site about it. This link should take you to that page - http://www.oboeclassics.com/RSBboys.htm - but briefly what the girls said was:
- that boys have a short attention span, and can't stick at it
- that boys feel the need to fit in - image counts, and the oboe doesn't do it for them
- that the oboe is an expressive instruments, and it's not cool to be expressive
- that girls are better at getting what they want, so parents are more likely to buy them an oboe, rather than reject the request as 'just a fad'.
What do people think? Is it true where you are that most young oboists are girls? Why do you think that is? I'd like some more comments, so apart from posting them here, I will copy them on to www.oboeclassics.com.
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