Author: ersosite

MICHAEL STOWE – Oboist

What is your main occupation at the moment?

I am a third year undergraduate oboe student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Alongside my studies I take on freelance playing work with various orchestras and ensembles and I also teach the oboe on Saturday mornings at the Wandsworth Music Academy.

What made you choose to play your instrument and how old were you when you started?

I started learning the oboe when I was 10 years old. I had previously been learning the recorder and initially wanted to move on to the flute, as I knew some children at my school who learned it. I suggested this to my mum who quickly responded with “no, everyone plays the flute- learn the oboe!”. Despite being blissfully unaware of the many hours I would eventually spend making reeds, I definitely feel I ended up on the right instrument!

What made you choose the concerto that you will be playing?

I have chosen to perform the Strauss concerto as I feel it perfectly demonstrates what the oboe does best: playing beautiful, endless melodies. The concerto was written in 1945 towards the end of Strauss’s life during what is known as his ‘Indian Summer’ of music, where he composed numerous beautiful pieces of music including his Four Last Songs and the Metamorphosen for solo strings, which I feel collectively paint a picture of Strauss’s life as a composer.

What do you feel you would gain from the experience of winning this competition and playing your concerto with ERSO and Peter Stark?

I have chosen to pursue a career as an oboist as performing is what I am most passionate about, so having the chance to perform one of my all-time favourite pieces of music as a soloist with such a fantastic orchestra and conductor would be a dream come true!

Today ERSO enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of music with the young players and singers from Kings House School in Richmond.  Our fabulous presenter Tim Keasley guided us through fairy-tale lands and outer space, with a short visit to Brazil to help find a rather spirited missing cow……

ERSO were under the expert baton of Chris Stark, best known for his work with the acclaimed Multi-Story Orchestra, and Chris worked with us to deliver some really beautiful moments of Ravel, Ives and Milhaud.

Catch you all in 2018!

Two amazing mornings of auditions for the ERSO Soloist of the Year competition – we were totally blown away by the level of talent and variety of wonderful performances.  We were completely spoilt for choice and picking only 4 candidates to move forward was incredibly hard.

However, we finally picked our four finalists.

Watch this space to find out more about them….

The Final will take place 10 – 1pm on Sunday 21 January at Camden Girls School.  The winner will have the hugely valuable opportunity to perform their concerto in our February 11 Concert under the baton of our esteemed Conductor Emeritus Peter Stark.

Join us at 4pm on 19th November Concert at Camden School for Girls for a wonderful family concert conducted by Chris Stark and presented by Tim Keasley.  We will be joined by talented young musicians from the Camden Training Orchestra.

The concerts has the theme of “the Universe of the Imagination” and will be extremely family friendly, lasting about an hour.

Programme

Ives  – The Unanswered question 
Ravel  – Mother Goose Suite
Milhaud  – Le boeuf sur le toit op. 58 

Entry free, collection at the end of the concert

Our founder Ernest Read put on his first concert for schools in 1929.  He knew that the length, content and style of a concert needed to reflect the audience.  He developed an innovative format that many professional symphony orchestras still follow today with short programmes, accessible introductions to the repertoire and audience participation.

We’re proud of our history and delighted to continue his work.  Here’s why the Family Concert in Camden (19 November) and the Family Concert in Kew (26th November) will be so special!

Come and join us if you can