How it Started, Part Two: Maybe I AM the only oboist trying to do this!

The IDRS responded favorably to my concept. The Double Reed’s oboe editor Dan Stolper said of my pitch: “Your plan for interviews with professional double reed players who hold jobs outside of performance or teaching sounds fascinating, and I will be happy to help you bring it to fruition in an article, or a series of articles.”

Jacob Smith and I met for our first interview in August 2011. I left our meeting feeling even more amazed by all he manages to do, but not as encouraged as I’d hoped. Bassoon reeds, I learned, are very different from oboe reeds. As in, they last a lot longer. Jacob told me he makes reeds once a year; and he is not the only bassoonist I spoke with who does this!

How it Started, Part One: "If he can do it, why can't I?"

Let’s go back in time to summer 2010, when this project began. I was sitting alone in my apartment, staring at my reed desk, trying to will myself to practice. And I couldn’t! I could not move out of bed. I had no energy or desire left.

I’d been working for ten years, starting at a restaurant the week after my fifteenth birthday. No music festivals for this lady; summer jobs instead. Three simultaneous part-time jobs for most of graduate school; then for my last semester, I went to grad school part-time and worked full-time in the office for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Plus oboe jobs and auditions.

By summer 2010, I was ready to retire!