Cooper Wright Reeds | blog - Notes from IDRS

Notes from IDRS

Tuesday July 22 2008

I’ve been here at IDRS… for two days and the memories are piling up. I’m having a great time hanging around with my buddies Adam Shapiro, Peter Hurd and his wife Chris, and Mr. Weber who showed up for a couple of days.

Adam and I were having lunch in the student union this afternoon and Laila Storch came and found us and had a nice chat. She’s so brilliant, and we spoke some more about DMA… dissertations. Then she ran off to catch a recital and Gordon Hunt started talking to me from a nearby table, so we joined him for a while. What a nice guy! He was debating whether to have that second Taco Bell burrito or not (which he eventually opted not to, a good choice considering the concert he had to play later!)

Adam and I sat around at the Howarth table with Michael Britton and played a bunch of XL’s. Adam picked one out, which means I will be buying one of his others, which I really fancy.

The concert tonight was AMAZING…. There were a lot of good performances, but the two that stood out was the Concerto in D minor RV 535 by Vivaldi for two oboes and strings, performed by Christian Schmitt and Sebastian Gott. Those guys tore the heck out of that piece, it was really amazing to hear, and they followed it up with a mind blurring encore. I was sitting next to Mr. Weber and Evelyn McCarty and we were all just baffled by their fingerings.

The other performance that left me boggled, and brought the house to it’s feet was a piece called Symphonie Concertante in F Major for two ooes and Orchestra by Francois Joseph Garnier, performed by Richard Woodhams (of the Philadelphia Orchestra) and Gordon Hunt. The piece was also mind boggling, as it seemed to require all of the tricks; double tonguing, circular breathing, and blistering fingers that even made Mr. Weber chuckle. Those two men have such different styles, and sounds that contrast each other like black and white, but my GOD… the artistry was unbelievable! (Michael Britton was VERY… proud that they both are exclusive Howarth XL players)

There’s a lot of great performances coming up, and I can’t wait to catch more of them. But I need to get to bed now; the Richard Woodhams masterclass is in 11 hours!

Cooper left these words on Tuesday Jul 22, 2008 at 08:40 AM
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patty
Jul 22, 2008

Thanks for blogging, Cooper, as I love reading about the events! (You can ignore my request over at facebook!

Hope you continue to have a blast.

Jillian
Jul 22, 2008

Christian Schmitt is amazing! I loved his performances two years ago. I also enjoyed speaking with him in my broken French and I felt a bit like a groupie when he signed his cd for me.