Upcoming Holiday Concert with IVSO

Tonight I will be performing with the Bel Sonore Chamber ensemble for one last round of holiday music.  It has been a pleasure and joy to play with these guys. 

This Saturday I will be performing with the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra for our annual Holiday Concert.  Come check us out!

Holiday Music!

So this season I have had the pleasure to perform with the Bel Sonore Chamber Group.  This past Sunday we did a lovely holiday concert at the Addison Public Library.  We have two more performances that I will be joining in December on Sunday the 7th at 2 PM- Bartlett Public Library (800 S. Barlett Rd, Bartlett IL) and on Tuesday the 9th at 7 PM - Lemont Public Library (50 E Wend St, Lemont, IL)

http://www.belsonore.com/

Admission is free.  Come check us out!




Further information on my website:
www.stephereng.com

Be an ACTIVE listener!

Hey all!

So I am excited to post that I am attending the Chicago Sinfonietta this Saturday night at the Naperville Wenzt Hall!  My dear friends and mentors Ricardo Castañeda and Lucia Matos will be performing!  I think it is very important for musicians and music lovers to actively partake in listening to music.  This means supporting local ensembles (big to small) and being a supportive active listener.  

This is how one can improve as a player too.  Listening to what is currently being performed in your local scene you will have a sense of what music is relevant, what people are responding to, and how you can fit into that community.  It is important to listen to musicians that you aspire to as well.  So, you can see, and hear, how they interpret and perform their craft.  

Feel free to check out this ensemble.  They do great collaborative work in the Chicago area and strive to bring new music of diverse backgrounds to our city.

  

El SIstema-Musical Revolution

Sorry I've been horrible with keeping up with this little old blog!  I recently started teaching with the Ravinia El Sistema program and I've been running around feeling like a deer in headlights.  I am so thrilled to be working through the Ravinia program and the beloved El Sistema program.  I've always been such a fan of the work that El Sistema does.  Gives me goose bumps to think about it.  Their goal is to promote community through music.  To give self worth and the ability to create through music.  Again I get all tingly just thinking about how powerful music is.  In my own life it has been such a powerful force in so many positive ways.  Check out this video about the program and Jose Antonio Abreu who founded the movement.

Website Update

Hey all, just updated my website.  Check it out!    Stephereng.com

BACK TO BASICS!

Belated blog post!  Sorry fan club (of just me) it has been a while!  I thought I would talk about my current project....SCALES!

Lately I have been focusing on the basics.  I am spending the majority of my practice time working scales and other basic things that one takes for granted.  Perfecting my scales helps improve my overall ability to play and my understanding of key.  Focusing on something as simple as moving from note to note I can really listen to my playing.  As a musician we assume we are listening to ourselves, but so often we actually hear what we want to hear and don't take the time to listen to what we are doing.  Actively listening allows you to hone your technique and finger coordination, tone quality and control, dynamics, vibrato, and so on.  I definitely suggest giving some of your practice regiment to work on the basics!  Here is a nice little article about scales for more reading :)

  

Educational Tid Bit of the Day

So many of us musicians run into ruts with our practicing.  It is a never ending part of our life and we are never good enough!  I have found that I get really down on myself in the practice room. I rework bad habits or find myself practicing in circles instead of improving.  Burton Kaplan's Practicing for Artistic Success is a god send to help improve the skill of practicing.  

Practicing For Artistic Success 

by Burton Kaplan

Since I was young the act of practicing has been instilled upon me.  To improve as a musician I must be diligent and patient and put in my time in the practice room.  This is a known fact to our community, but what gets so many of us is the use of time in that practice room.  It is so easy to go through the motions, put in the quantity of time, but not the quality of time. 

This book gives a pedagogy to the practicing.  Kaplan gives you tools to develop to improve your ability to practice.  Practicing is about putting in the time, but the time has to be utilized to its fullest.  

Some of the fresh perspectives that Kaplan gives in his pedagogy are how to set goals, how to actively listen to your practicing, being positive about your successes.  He speaks of settting OBTAINABLE goals.  Don't look at all the work you have to learn and say you'll learn it in one day.  Pick out specific problem areas and work note by note, measure by measure, phrase by phrase.  Then be POSITIVE when you've improved those four measures.  Your goal was to improve those four measures and you nailed it!  Great job.  Don't look at the fact that you still have not perfected the whole movement, work bit by bit.  While practicing learn how to listen to what you are playing.  Your ears (or a recording device) are your best friend.  As a musician you have to be able to hear what you are playing, hear the things you did well (maybe intonation and expression), but then find the things you came up short on (maybe rhythm and articulation).  Active listening is imperative to practicing and performing.

This book goes into much greater detail on the philosophy of practicing.  This book is a great asset to how to refresh your approach to the monotony of practicing.  I highly recommend you give it a read! 

Want to learn oboe?

Want to learn the oboe?  

The coolest instrument in the orchestra!  Contact me for private instruction at stepher.eng@gmail.com

Also check out my website at

www.stephereng.com

Concert This Weekend

FYI!!!  Another concert series is happening this weekend.  I am subbing with the Fox Valley Orchestra on Kabalevsky's Symphony No. 2

We have concerts Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3 PM.

Come on out!  Tickets and Info Here

Upcoming Concerts!

Upcoming Concert this weekend. I get to start off the concert with the English Horn solo from Berlioz's Roman Carnivale!!!

Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra

When: Saturday March 1st at 4:30 PM

Where: Ottowa High School Auditorium

This concert features our student concerto winners! 
We have a talented flutist on Teleman (Suite in A Minor) and a virtuous pianist on Mozart (Mozart Concert No. 20 in D Minor).

We will also being performing Bizet's Carmen Suite, Berlioz's Roman Carnivale and Saint-Saens' Dance Bacchanale

Blank Slate

I recently hit a bump in the road.  I was turned down from an audition, which is a first for me.  It threw me for a loop last week because I was feeling really prepared (this never happens for me!) and I was honestly looking forward to doing the audition.  Auditions are a tricky matter with me since I get really nervous (yes we all do).  So I constantly feel like I under represent myself as a musician and oboist.  I've taken on two approaches to solving this issues.  One, I am making an effort to perform, or "mock" audition, as many times as possible in front of others to get their feed back.  Being put on the spot with others around to do my best gives me practice at having to be on in the moment, instead of alone in my practice room with out any one to critique me.  Second, I am practicing being able to play the pieces without warming them up.  For me that means I still practice the parts that I struggle with.  But at the beginning of each practice session I start with the audition repertoire cold.  I play through it all as if it was an audition, just like if I had been sitting in a waiting area for the past 15 minutes.  This all seems rather obvious, but saying it out loud and actually doing it is half of the battle.  So last week was a bit of a bummer for me, but here is to moving on to the next challenge.

This week I am starting new.  I started with a day of tying blanks so I have a fresh set to work on this week :)

New blanks for a new week

Blast from the past

My old quintet!  Miss you guys (some of which I thankfully still play with!)

From Left to Right (Martha Robinson on bassoon, Kate Swope on horn, Stepher Eng on oboe, Zach Weiss on flute, and Amanda Kayser on clarinet)

Fun Fact of the Day!

Marcel Tabuteau was one of the most influential oboists and teachers in America.  He came from the Paris Conservatory where he was taught by Georges Gillet and came to the United States to play with the Philadelphia Orchestra and teach at the Curtis Institute.  He influenced the use of F.LORÉE oboes in the United States as well as helped to create the American Woodwind sound that is distinct to the US.  For more information feel free to reed this great book by Laila Storch (former student and friend). 

Website Happening!

I have been behind with this but SLOWLY my website is coming together!  I got some great pictures take by my dear friend Michael Swope, awesome trumpet player, and I just added a couple sound bites to tempt your ears with.  More info to come, but in the meantime check out the site please!

www.stephereng.com

Reeding

English Horn Reed Making Day