Now usually on Experience Michiana, we're out and about experiencing Michiana, but today we invited Janet here to PBS to w it here in downtown South Bend.

Janice, welcome.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for being here.

You're originally from upstate New York.

I am.

You lived in Chicago, and then you moved to this area.

But you moved here for the symphony.

So can you tell me a little bit about your journey before we talk about what people can experience on this week's show?

So I'm curious to learn about you.

Thank you.

I have been a professional musician all my life.

Ever since I was ten years old, I've been playing this instrument, the oboe.

And after I graduated from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, we, my husband and I moved to Chicago, where we worked with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, began to take auditions, began to freelance.

We were working and at a certain point when I won the principal of a job here in South Bend, we were living in Rogers Park, which we, you know, is the far north side of Chicago.

And all I ever did was fight my way through Chicago traffic to come to Indiana to do some real driving and play.

So we moved here.

It was a community that felt like a person could live here.

Yeah, no.

As someone who's not originally from here, it has a certain charm to it that I think a lot of people questioned sometimes, but I'm like, the 12 minute commutes everywhere is definitely helpful to you.

And you know, all the drivers are not trying to kill you like in Chicago, which is great too.

And so tell me about your instrument and the oboe.

Tell me about that.

And tell me about, like, how you picked it up originally.

And, you know, you started when you were ten.

Was that the instrument you started with?

It is.

I had always assumed that I was going to play the flute when I was eight years old and nine years old.

I couldn't wait to choose the flute, and we went to the school.

The day that we were to choose our band instruments and the eighth grade band came around, played their instruments for us, and I heard the oboe for the first time and thought, oh, obviously.

Obviously that is what I need to play.

And it's such a self-selecting instrument.

Like it's a weird sound.

It's to play.

It's difficult, like the people who play the oboe and like, persevere with the oboe are a special breed of people.

They like to suffer.

They kind of.

Yeah, yeah.

For a beautiful outcome.

Yes, exactly.

I like it.

That's kind of life, isn't it?

So in a way.

So I know you're a part of the South Bend Symphony, but also you're going to be performing with the Laporte County Symphony, which is what we're here to talk about.

So tell me about their show that's coming up and how you got involved.

And is there a lot of connection between the two, or do often do performers like play with both or.

I mean, I believe there are a few musicians who move back and forth, but the Laporte County Symphony is more of a community orchestra, so more people are local to that community.

More people are coming in for the joy of playing.

And I met the conductor when she came here a few years back to conduct The Nutcracker.

I believe she did some children's concerts with us, and we spoke at that time, and I pitched her some solo oboe work, because one of the things that I love the most to do is to get to stand in front of the orchestra, you know, where the sparkly dress, be at the front of the stage in the lights and solo on my instrument.

It's such a joy for me.

And not everyone.

Not everyone likes that in the same way.

Yeah.

So a few years later, it came to this concert where I was invited to solo on a few works.

The orchestra's also going to be playing, which we all know as like the most gorgeous orchestral music, so enjoyable to listen to, storytelling and and magic.

And the theme of it is Arabian Nights because of that.

And so when is that concert going to be taking place?

The concert is November 7th at 7:00 in the evening.

It's at the Laporte Civic Auditorium.

Okay.

I believe that's all.

You're like, I'll put it into my phone and you'll get there.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And again, how long have you been in this area?

Playing with the South Bend Symphony.

And again, not to confuse anyone watching, but this is to promote the Laporte County Symphony's Arabian Nights on November 7th, as you mentioned.

But how long have you actually been in this area performing?

I moved here in 2007, and I've been playing with the symphony ever since.

You know, when you say 2007, in my brain, I'm like, that wasn't that long.

It's like four years ago, right?

But yet it's almost two decades.

I, I time is getting weirder to me the older I get.

So I can't even say so.

So this instrument and what is it about it that is so difficult that you do need to persevere?

I mean, I know you do it all instruments, but what is it about this one that is uniquely difficult or different?

So the thing with the oboe is it is, first of all, very mechanically fussy.

The key work is, always prone to entropy, to sort of falling apart on you.

Yeah.

The fingering, like my ankles.

Exactly.

Exactly like it's so tricksy.

The thing that really primarily makes it difficult is the double reed.

So this is both a challenge to blow through because it's got the T ist weeny ist opening.

So oboists like, pack up air inside our body that we are unable to force out through the instrument.

It's like a little bit physically uncomfortable.

But the other thing with the reed is that we have to make it so I. I hand make all of the reeds that I play on.

They last maybe a week.

Oh that's it, heavy use.

Okay.

And so I'm sort of constantly building the job of an oboist is half artistry but half carpentry.

Wow.

Interesting.

I'd like to hear it.

Obviously.

You know, and that's one of the things we want to hear today, which is great.

So tell me a little bit about the piece you're going to play or.

Absolutely.

I'm going to be performing a piece by Madame Leszczynski.

We don't know anything about her other than her last name.

Like we don't even know.

Is that her maiden name?

Is that her married name?

I don't know.

The piece was sort of resurrected from archival material only a few years ago.

By it was Catherine Needleman, who was the principal oboist in the Baltimore Symphony, who sort of rediscovered and put in the work to resurrect this piece.

But the piece is clearly from the Baroque era, from like, the 1700s.

Okay.

And so it is the oldest oboe concerto that we know of, written by a woman.

Okay.

And it is shrouded in mystery.

We're not even sure what country she's from.

It's a very neat experience to be playing, you know, as a relatively new work in our repertoire.

Yeah.

Something that is that old, that is, and something that has historical significance, almost feels like discovering treasure or something in a way.

And it is cool that with music that even though it was lost for so long and then came back that it like never dies, you know, as long as you keep playing it.

Exactly.

I like that.

Exactly.

It stands up as a piece of music.

Yeah.

All right.

I'm excited to hear it.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much for playing that.

And.

And what's it like preparing for a concert like this in for an event like this?

I mean, are you traveling back and forth to the port, or do you kind of all just get your your song list and all practice separately?

Or how does all that work?

What a great question.

No, actually I have not met the orchestra yet.

I have not showed up, you know, in front of the stage with them.

I won't do that until the night before the performance.

Okay.

But when you show up as the concerto soloist, of course, it is your job to know the piece in advance and to be ready for that sort of hero role of being in front of the group.

So, of course, I have been practicing it in my house.

Of course, I hired a pianist locally, and we've been working on it together so that I have the feeling of what it is to go through it and what the harmonic motion is doing and what the entrance is all sound like.

Yeah, I've been working on it.

I mean, I've sort of known that this was going to happen for six months or so.

Yeah.

So you're so I'm, I'm, I'm thinking about you're ready.

I'm ready.

You're ready.

No, I love that.

And I love how enthusiastic you are about it.

It's like, you know, I feel like you still have that ten year old energy.

I love what I get to do.

Yeah, it's it's awesome.

And I mean that respectfully, you know, because I think we're supposed to be more childlike, you know, who wants to be an adult, you know, but it's great that you're so excited about that.

And so are you performing out front then the whole night, like, is the whole concert based around you or is there different, you know, will other musicians be also taking front of the stage as well, or are you the star of the show?

I believe I'm the star of that's that's okay.

I mean, the the orchestra will open with an overture, the Mozart abduction of the overture, which is great and has like Turkish flavors to it.

And then I'll come out, I'll play the concerto, the Madame Little Concerto, and then after that, I'll be playing Gabriel's oboe.

So we're sort of like an encore, but it's still accompanied by the orchestra.

And if you're familiar or if your listeners are familiar with Gabriel's Oboe, it's the theme music from the movie The Mission, the 1986 film.

Okay.

And if you know no other oboe solos, probably recognize Gabriel's oboe.

Okay.

It's so lovely.

It's a melody that people can leave the auditorium humming.

Nice.

It's a beautiful piece.

My assumption is that after that, there'll be an intermission, and then they'll close with nice.

And so when it comes to local symphonies, whether it's La Porte or South Bend or Elkhart, what is the true importance of having the symphony?

I know it's a big question, but I know it's beautiful to go and listen to them and watch them.

But is there a deeper importance to having them?

I mean, in a time when the arts and when public radio and when, like human centered, experiences are being increasingly devalued and underfunded and defunded?

And in a time where it is so easy to stay home and watch Netflix, stay home and, like, chat back and forth with your chatbot AI in a time when it's so easy to not have a human connection.

Yeah, what a thing to be able to go to a live symphony orchestra and see on stage 50 to 80 musicians who are all doing like analog physical things, creating beauty out of hunks of wood?

Yeah.

And airwaves and, you know, sound waves and doing something that is together in a room to have a thousand people in the audience all experiencing the same thing at the same time.

It's not something that we do all the time anymore.

I think it's special, and I think it's important.

It also shows the power of connection without words having to be spoken.

Absolutely.

Which is true connection, I think.

Absolutely.

And, you know, in general, my passion is you wouldn't know it from this concert, but my passion is like new music, music of our time.

Because, again, living composers and living musicians and living audience members get to come to that was better when the audience is living.

I'm just kidding.

Sorry.

I have an experience of of communication and of community.

No, I love that.

And I totally, you know, everything you said there is great.

And I'm sorry I ruined it with my joke at the end.

That's just my Irish humor.

But thank you so much.

And I think it would be great for people to go to Laporte on November 7th, watch you perform, and then obviously hopefully support you wherever you're performing.

So thank you so much for for sharing that with us.

Thank you so much.