ELAINE DOUVAS appeared in a gala alumni concert at the Cleveland Institute of Music on May 16, 1986. With pianist Theodore Ganger she performed the Poulenc Sonata and Robert Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70. Miss Douvas has been principal oboist of the Metropolitan Opera since 1977; she has also been principal oboist of the Atlanta Symphony, and in the summers, of the New York Philharmonic. She has also appeared at the Grand Teton Festival, the Marlboro Festival, the Marcel Moyse woodwind seminars, the Blossom Festival School, and since 1982, she has taught at the Waterloo Music Festival in New Jersey.

J. ROBERT MOORE, professor of oboe at the University of Oregon, presented a recital at Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, on May 20, 1986. His program included Mozart's Quartet, K. 370 and his Adagio and Rondo, K. 617 for organ, flute, oboe, viola, and cello; Gardens by Peter Schickele; Three Folksongs from the County of Csik by Bartok (arranged by Tibor Szeszler); Tune and Variations (1977) by Edmund Soule; and Graham Powning's delightful variations on "Waltzing Matilda ".

CHARLES-DAVID LEHRER was soloist in a recital at Bezanson Recital Hall, Amherst, Massachusetts. This September 28th program included Handel's Sonata I,- the Oboe Concerto in F Major by Johann Baptist Vanhal in a new edition created by the performer from the manuscript parts contained in the Oettingen-Wallerstein Collection; Poulenc's 1962 Sonata, and the Sonata VI of Jan Dismas Zelenka in which Mr. Lehrer was assisted by his wife, Nancy Bonar Lehrer. Other faculty artists from the University of Massachusetts participated in this most recent performance by this indefatigable recital player.

ROBERT BLOOM presented a series of master classes at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia March 3 through 7. The editor of Overtones, the publication of the Curtis Institute has kindly allowed us to reprint an account of this exciting return by one of CIM's most distinguished alumni.

"It's nice to come home, " beamed Curtis alumnus Robert Bloom ('34). "Curtis is a very special place to me," said the renowned oboist.

Bloom, a former student of Marcel Tabuteau, returned to Curtis March 3-7 to hold a series of master classes at CIM. At the culmination of his visit, Bloom and his students delighted a full audience in Curtis Hall with a woodwind chamber music concert.

"Whatever I can do for Curtis, I'm honored to be asked," said the energetic musician. "I feel such a debt of gratitude to the school. Being back here helps me quiet my conscience."

"In many ways, nothing has changed at Curtis since the last time I was here 50 years ago," chuckled Bloom who was touched to discover that Curtis' Wednesday afternoon tea tradition was still observed. "But Curtis is more relaxed today," he noted with approval. "There's more warmth and joy where it used to be austere. We were all so terribly earnest then! "

Bloom's career as both a teacher and performer has been nothing less than full. After graduating from Curtis, Bloom joined the Philadelphia Orchestra as first oboist and English horn soloist. He left the orchestra to take a first-chair position at the Rochester Philharmonic and later became the first oboist for Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony where he performed six years.

Considered an authority on both baroque and contemporary music, the master oboist was one of the original members of the Bach Aria Group and also one of the founders of the Bennington College Composers' Conference. Over the years, Bloom has served on the music faculty at Yale, Juilliard and the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts. He frequently conducts master classes at conservatories throughout the country.

Richard Woodhams, Curtis faculty member and principal oboist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, was responsible for arranging Bloom's visit.

"I have a high regard for Bloom's musicianship and enthusiasm for life which is inspirational," says Woodhams who studied with the noted oboist when he was 15. "1 wanted my students to benefit from his example as I did. Bloom grew out of the Curtis tradition and developed his own musical ideas with Curtis as the foundation. "

Curtis students participating in the master classes established an immediate rapport with Bloom. Curtis clarinet student Carl Jackson described Bloom as "one of the best wind players of all time." "He's an excellent teacher and a consummate musician... very friendly, personal and direct."

SARA LAMBERT BLOOM, oboist, is a member of the Eden Chamber Soloists, together with Julius Baker, long- time first flutist of the New York Philharmonic, and harp sichordist/pianist Masananobu Ikemiya. She has recently been promoted to the rank of professor of oboe at the Cincinnati College/Conservatory of Music. One Of her student ensembles, the Taft Ensemble, was the only group this season to receive a grant from the Pilot Residency Program of the National Endowment of the Arts funding its 92 concerts in the Cincinnati schools and museums. Sara also teaches annually at the Music Festival of Florida in Sarasota. She is actively working to expand the repertoire, with future works planned for her by Andre Previn, George Crumb, Joel Hoffman, and Frederick Kaufman. One of the works she commissioned, the Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet and Strings by John Harbison was performed this last August by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra, WILLIAM WIELGUS, oboe soloist, and Patricia Heckler, clarinetist. John Harbison's program notes read as follows: "When I was asked to write a piece for a large consortium of ensembles, the initial discussions were with oboist Sara Bloom and clarinetist David Shifrin. Out of this conjunction the present concerto arose. Sara Bloom was entrusted with the premiere of the piece in its orchestral guise at the New College Festival in Sarasota, and David Shifrin with the single instrument version, at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon... The oboe, clarinet, and strings are equal partners. The first movement is declamatory, the second contemplative, the last frenetic. Each movement sustains one effect, in the Baroque manner, and it was one of my pleasures to introduce the clarinet, born too late for the heyday of the concerto grosso, into that texture. The steady insistent rhythms are indeed baroque, the harmonies less so..." The Taft Ensemble, mentioned earlier, includes oboist LORRAINE DORSEY and BRIDGET ALAIRE, bassoonist. Another of Ms. Bloom's pupils, LISA KOZENKO, is a member of the Manhattan Wind Quintet, 1986 winners of Artists International Competition, the Monterey Peninsula/Carmel Competition, and the Coleman Award. In 1986 she was named outstanding member of the National Orchestral Association. Ms. Bloom herself, not to be outdone by her pupils' achievements, won high critical praise for her performance with flutist Samuel Baron in Antonio Salieri's Concerto in C Major, performed on June 13, 1986 at the Music Festival of Florida. Florence Fisher, writing in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune enjoyed the "freshness and purity of the work, enhanced by the peerless quality of the two soloists... the flute and oboe duets were played with perfect timing in the exacting scales of the cadenza. The presto offered further surprises in the modulation in certain phrases, tonalities suggesting Arabic harmonies. Alternating flute and oboe solos were again models of grace and style. "

DAN STOLPER, professor of oboe at Michigan State University, East Lansing, and editor of "half" of this journal, had the great pleasure of a month's long tour of the People's Republic of China in June of 1984. Cities visited included Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Chongqing. With my colleagues in the Richards Quintet (ensemble -in-residence at MSU) we gave some fourteen performances and did a great amount of teaching, from master classes to ensemble coaching. It would take a full-length article to describe in detail the musical and touristic pleasures of this journey. With a few photos, I'll hope to give you a feeling of the flavor of the hospitality and eagerness we found in a country whose culture and approach to the oboe is ever- so-far from our own.

I particularly enjoyed our week-long stay at the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu (the Sichuan province, noted for its fiery cuisine, is also related through agricultural researches to the State of Michigan, and as a matter of fact, Governor James Blanchard, still our chief executive, accompanied us on this part of the trip.) Professor Wang Jiri Der, whose class I worked with on several occasions, is one of many musicians of his generation who studied in the USSR, and while he plays a Marigaux oboe, his pupils almost all use Chinese-made instruments, of rather inferior quality. There is a great scarcity of printed music; some pupils work out of hand-copied Barret methods! In spite of this lack of sophisticated equipment, there is an eagerness for information and a sincerity about learning that is quite admirable. While we did our share of tourism, the trip was a grueling routine of concerts and classes, much of it made difficult by the tropical temperatures of Sichuan. We learned that the Chinese nicknames for Chengdu and Chongqing - "furnace cities" - are well deserved. There is a busy cane-growing industry in China, still in the fledgling stages, and the cane samples I was given were far too freshly-cut to sample; one can hope that with a few years aging this cane will be useable. Chinese players all seem to play - and many of them very well indeed - on this Chinese-grown cane. Most of the oboes I saw were made in Shanghai, and were copies of French instruments in most respects. One can only hope to return to a country where music in all stages - oboe-playing included - is so full of potential and promise, and has already reached impressive levels of accomplishment.

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