Interviewees' Shared Characteristics

Last week, I did three interviews in three days, so I am busy transcribing a lot of new exciting content that will be posted in the coming weeks.

I've now done more than a dozen interviews, and I'm even more amazed at the level of talent and passion of these people. I am honored that they took time out of their busy schedules to talk to me. Some common themes are starting to emerge:

How is a Special Event like a Performance?

This year at Curtis, I have the added responsibility -- in addition to the grantwriting -- of running the Curtis Crescendo Club along with my friend and colleague Trish Furman. The Crescendo Club's goal is to build interest in and support for Curtis among Philadelphia's young professionals. 

Coming Attractions!

Exciting new content is in the works! I have interviewed composer Joseph Hallman, a remarkable person you will learn a lot from, so please stay tuned. All of the interviews are giving me more insight into my own journey so I'll be writing more articles about that, too.

The interviews do take quite a bit of time to put together: scheduling, the actual interview, transcribing, and then lots of editing to make sure they're perfect and that the interviewees are comfortable with them because it's pretty personal stuff we're talking about. 

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!

Welcome to Recovering Oboist!

The launch of this blog coincides with the publication of my first article, "Cut Time," seen in the Summer 2012 issue of The Double Reed, the quarterly journal of the International Double Reed Society (IDRS). IDRS members can access the article for free online; I'm working on getting a scan to post here. Most music schools subscribe to The Double Reed; if you find yourself in a college music library, you can read it there, too.

This blog, like the article, will feature interviews with professional musicians who have full-time day jobs outside of music. I will start by telling you more about myself and why I started this project. Then I'll post complete interviews from the IDRS article, because I had to condense them for publication. Then I'll begin posting new interviews branching out from the oboe and bassoon world. I hope to meet some of you here, so please introduce yourself in the comments.

I'm one of you: fund-raiser by day, musician by night....sometimes vice-versa if we have a gala and I'm playing a matinee. Work-life balance and the motivation for pursuing "a double life," as I often refer to it, is of great interest to me. The good news is, we're not alone. A lot of musicians make this work, and pursue two -- or more! -- careers at very high levels. I will showcase their stories and hope to inspire those of us for whom this is a reality. It's not an easy life, but it is possible and can be very rewarding. 

Thanks for reading!