Education & Performance Presentations
EVENTS
Call it a Clarinet One More Time
A Glimpse into the Life of a
Professional OBOE Player
Would you play an instrument you had to virtually build from scratch every day?
Listen and learn how Ms. Aguirre and thousands of other professional oboists create sound on one of the most difficult instruments in the world. With an insightful and often humorous presentation, Sherie offers her distinct perspective on the life of the professional oboe player, offering the layman an inside look into the fascinating and often infuriating world of this double reed instrument.
Those Pesky Reeds
Double reed instruments are renowned for their complexity because of the painfully precise reed making process that is a daily challenge. They must constantly create and perfect this basis of their mouthpiece and instrument. Sherie breaks down the process from the cane field in southern France to the stage. It’s often said that oboe players spend more time making reeds than actually playing on them.
Orchestra Auditions: Both Sides of the Screen
Ms. Aguirre’s absorbing presentation also includes an insider’s look at the subjective audition process of professional orchestras. From both sides of the audition screen that separates the candidate from the adjudicating committee, Sherie dissects and exposes the fascinating process of orchestral auditions. Gleaning insight from the journeys of mentors and colleagues, as well as her own ongoing 44-year professional voyage, she lays out the hurdles and the incalculable variables in the world of classical musicians.
The oboe’s a horn made of wood.
I’d play you a tune if I could,
But the reeds are a pain,
And the fingering’s insane.
It’s the ill wind that no one blows good.
– Ogden Nash