Behind the Scenes at
Oboe Blow-Out New York
with Nora Post
By Aaron Cohen
Montreal, Quebec, 1994
On June 19, 1994, the day after the OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK officially ended, I caught up with a very relaxed, relieved, and happy Nora Post After eight months of planning, she had successfully organized an international oboe weekend featuring some of today's finest oboe performers, showcasing an unprecedented diversity of the oboe's possibilities. What follows is a conversation in which we discussed everything from the planning of the OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK to the possibilities for more "BLOW-OUTS" in the future. Obviously it is a tremendous effort for one person to take on a project of this size; as oboists we can only be thankful that we have someone such as Nora Post to give us such events.
AC: Tell me about the planning of this "BLOWOUT" and how long it's taken you.
NP: It's hard to think specifically because a lot of ideas were percolating at the same time in my head and I was creating smaller regional events while I was working on OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK. These smaller events were my warm ups, so that I could figure out what was going to be needed to do something like OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK. I'd never done anything like this and I think it's a first for a small business. People talk about burning the candle at both ends, but what I've discovered is that there's a lot more than two ends to a candle that you can burn at the same time! I'm glad that I did it all. It was an exciting adventure. To me, it was a little bit like someone who has to climb Mt. Everest because it's there. It was a big challenge. Could one person and one small business do something that is truly international at the highest possible level artistically? This assumes that the organization and administration of it will also be at a superb level. It was my Mt. Everest, and I somehow managed. So, I'm really glad I'll never have to go to Mt. Everest; I've already climbed it!
However, I did it with a lot of help, and it wouldn't have been possible without the help of an awful lot of people. What I think I'm most proud of is that the concept was entirely my own. I went to Europe in October on a business trip, buying oboes and seeing all of the manufacturers that I represent. I do that several times every year and work with them on parts, repairs, choosing instruments, etc., and I fundraised with everyone. I did my best and they did their best, and they were wonderful. With one exception, they all cooperated and did wonderful things. Several did much more for me than they even promised, which was just great. That's how I was able to begin to deal with the finances of what was involved in this. The New School, which was the hosting institution, sent out 110,000 catalogs. We sent out an enormous amount of publicity, Matt Sullivan sent out five or six thousand flyers for his concert, and Musicians' Accord also promoted the event. Laura Kaminsky at the New School did a tremendous job for us. Every time Stuart Dunkel sold a reed, an ad for OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK went into the box; Bob Gilbert did the same. My competitors-we're all friends of course-really helped me get the word out.
One of the other great things was the way the manufacturers helped each other. In early June, the Rigoutat factory sent me their two top oboe finishers/repairmen who have been working here all month. They've been repairing and servicing oboes by every manufacturer; it was fine with them. They were servicing Laubins, Lorées, everything. The two guys from Rigoutat also repaired oboes through out all of OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK for the participants at no charge. They didn't even care who made the oboe. That's a level of cooperation among the manufacturers that I'm really proud of. It's a rare manufacturer who is this generous towards his competitors. We can all learn from this example!Having the extra help from Rigoutat was so important, because without somebody to help me service oboes, I couldn't have done the administration for this over the last couple of weeks. We were well prepared, but I thought within the last two weeks it would be fairly crazy and it was crazier than I had imagined. The last day, for instance, every single person who works for me was at a different airport, trying to sort out different customs problems with instruments that were being held by U.S. customs. We had to have these instruments by the next day for rehearsals and that kind of thing. You give them money, you give them the car and the paperwork and just say: "Go, I'll see you in eight hours when you can get out of Kennedy Airport." I couldn't have done this without them, but that's the kind of last minute hysteria that happens. This is, I suppose, what you have to expect. It was really a challenge from top to bottom.
Again, I'm really so pleased to have been able to work with the manufacturers and the players that they sponsored. I am incredibly proud of the quality of all of the performances and of every single presentation that we heard. I was sitting there just so thrilled to be able to hear playing like what we've heard.AC: Looking back over the last two days, has everything gone according to plan?
NP: Yes. We had a convoy that left my workshop at 5:00 A.M. Friday and I made wake-up calls to all of my employees; but now I'm told by every manufacturer that I have to look for a new staff as of Monday morning because no one will work for me after I did that to them! But everybody got up, we loaded three cars full of all these instruments, we got to the New School, and everything worked.By the time the manufacturers arrived at 8:30 A.M., their exhibits were set up, ready to go, and everything was done for them. We had to change locks in the building. We had to have security guards sleep outside the room that the oboes were in, because this is New York. The administrative details, the kind of insurance I had to have for the event. The kinds of things the New School insisted on in terms of insurance and liability-whoa! It took three or four months to get all that done and to get all the paperwork written with the right carriers and to have it all approved by the Dean of the New School. Coordinating the pianists schedules with the oboists schedule doesn't sound hard, but if the oboist lives in Switzerland and the pianist lives in Milwaukee, then coordinating and creating rehearsal schedules in New York for them at the right time, the right day, and in a room that has a tuned piano, is a Machiavellian nightmare.
Then came the issue of: "Are we playing at 440 or 442?" The Europeans wanted 442 and the Americans wanted 440. There were a lot of issues. Finalizing all of the programs with everyone always presents an issue because, given the size of the repertoire for the oboe, there are inevitable duplications. Someone would like to play one piece and another person proposes the same piece. To avoid duplications, most players had to compromise a little bit on the programs, especially for the more traditional 19th century pieces. People were very gracious about it and nearly everyone was very understanding. I'm very pleased about that, too.
AC: Let's talk about the spectrum of what's happened. You've got everything from Baroque oboist Stephen Hammer to new electronic systems, plus everything in between. Maybe I could get you to comment on the various extremes you've brought together.
NP: Well, it couldn't have been more intentional! The director of the Darmstadt Summer New Music Festival, Friedrich Hommel, had a philosophy that always created interesting results. He always used to invite all sorts of composers from everywhere and it was like a big pot, it was like a stew. He'd throw 'em all together for the three weeks of the festival. He'd invite certain kinds of personalities and it just started to cook. There were wars, there was a time I was physically attacked over a piece I was playing. There were police at a premiere I did. Wild things happened there and Hommel didn't exactly plan the craziness, but he knew it was going to happen. You couldn't get this group of composers together without expecting a lot of explosions. In a way, I've always admired him enormously for having the courage to do something like that. And then whatever happened...happened, and if you could deal with it, fine if you couldn't-fine. There were fatalities, aesthetically speaking. It was always very difficult but there was never a dull moment.
With OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK, I think while we were tamer than Darmstadt, I did want to do it from soup to nuts. I wanted to present the oboe in as wide a range as I possibly could manage. Again, this ties in with talking about how is this instrument going to be used in the future? How are people going to be playing it? What kinds of employment and economic possibilities are there going to be for oboe players? All this is always in my thinking. I wanted to start with the baroque oboe and the history of the instrument, so we had a musicologist from the Paris Conservatory. We had so many fascinating people, and then we covered many of the great pieces from the 19th century, wonderful contemporary music pieces, premieres, women composers; we simply had everything. I would say the electronic program was the 21st century. I said to the audience: "Well, now we'll go downstairs and visit the 21st century" and that really is what it was. It's a look at what is possible for the future.I think oboists as a group are sometimes a bit conservative in our choice of repertoire because we're so concerned with the instrument and the reed, the limitations of the instrument-that kind of thing. I think it's always important to stretch yourself, no matter what you're doing. We also had a lot of young kids at OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK, and I wanted them to see that it's not just a question of playing Ferling etudes or garret. There's so much more, and the possibilities for them are much wider than they realize. Some of the younger kids and even little kids were stupefied during the electronic presentation. They couldn't believe this was really an oboe, and that this might be something that they could do in their lifetime. Perhaps these same little kids will carry it a step further in twenty years, or many steps further, which is what I'd like to see.
Instruments continually evolve. When an instrument stops evolving, it goes into a museum. My vested interest in the oboe is that I want to see this instrument continue. I want to see it continue in viable ways. So, what's going to happen to the instrument for the Berio Sequenza in the next century? That is a fascinating question.
The vision of the whole programming was to bring as broad a spectrum as I could possibly find. I hope I succeeded, I know that's what I was trying to do.
AC: You succeeded, no doubt about that. Now that the whole thing is over, what is Nora Post going to be doing in the next couple days?
NP: A little sleep would be great for starters. Second of all, I have to go look at my workshop and see what kind of a state it's in. My business will be in a catastrophic state for at least a week while we're unpacking everything, taking inventory, etc. My whole inventory is in three rooms in my shop. I haven't been there yet. Hundreds of administrative details will await me. Somewhere along the line I might take a day off.
AC: Are we going to see another one of these in the future?
NP: Yes and no. The answer is a definite yes to more regional events like this, and at the moment I have at least six invitations from universities to do something like this within the next two years, or at any time that I'd like to, with the use of the campuses and their facilities. So, if I have the energy and the financial backing to do it, I'm all set with the invitations and the hosting institutions. It will be a question of energy and financial planning.
The oboe business is a very demanding business. I have a lot of responsibilities to a lot of people, and I can't just let that go in order to do these kind of promotional events. I've got to be able to keep the business going well; otherwise there's no way to finance regional or larger events, such as OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK.
To do a big event such as this, I've learned a very important lesson, which I'll pass on to anyone who's thinking of doing anything like this: small businesses don't do things on this scale for a very good reason; They just don't have enough support staff and they don't have the financial resources to do it. I would like to be General Motors or Honda to do something like this; they have enormous advertising budgets and projects like this are handled by very talented people with lots of experience. That would be ideal. That's what it takes.
The New School did a very, very fine job, but they were terribly limited in the amount of help they could give me. It was a first for them, too. They had not created or sponsored an event like this. So we were all going through it for the first time together and saying: "Well, what's going to happen next? Well, we'll just fly by the seat of our pants when something happens. We'll just take care of it fast." There wasn't going to be any choice. I think the New School is as thrilled as I am that it was such a terrific event.For me, I knew the artistic end of it was just superb. I knew that from Day One because that's what I wanted. What I didn't know was how all the logistics would work out, what we'd have for an audience, etc. All in all, everything was beyond anything I could have imagined in terms of success. For instance, by late morning on Saturday, there wasn't a program to be had. I should have printed two or three hundred more. I never imagined we'd have that many people. The publicity for the event was something I couldn't have imagined in my life. We were all over the New York Times, we got the big weekly spot in the New Yorker, we'll be in Chamber Music America, and there will be at least half a dozen articles coming out of this. I can't even list them. The music trade journals for the industry have picked up on this and you'll all be reading about this little oboe business in Music Trades, a major magazine for the music industry in North America. As a follow-up to all of this, the New York Times plans to do a special piece on 'what makes oboe players sick' next Spring, as the feature front page article of the Sunday Arts & Leisure section. To the best of my knowledge, the oboe as an instrument has never gotten publicity like this during my lifetime.
So, everyone's finding OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK to be rather newsworthy. That's gratifying after the amount of work that goes into it. It's like getting a great review after you've really worked hard on a piece. It's wonderful to open the newspapers and see that somebody thought it was worth all the effort you put into it.