Oboe

I'm Eve Osborn, and I play the oboe. The oboe is a woodwind instrument, which means it's made of wood and you blow air through it. And we use different combinations of keys to change notes.

And like some wind instruments, we use a reed. And ours is a double reed, which is two pieces of cane put together, and we blow through them to make a little buzz. And then when you put it in the instrument, it sounds much nicer than a buzz.

In a lot of classical music, you'll find a lot of oboe solos, which are really expressive and really emotional. Performing this piece was a great experience for me, mainly because we got to do it with the composer presenting and explaining the work. My favourite part was actually the spot which Katy described as the 'chemical sludge' moment.

So there were these beautiful lines in the brass and the strings going on, but in the upper woodwinds and lower parts of the orchestra, we had these sludge cluster chord sort of things. So for us it meant doing harmonics and just really glassy, soft, but not gentle, long notes over the top. So that was really interesting to be able to do.

So I think I got to have a go of all the different motifs. So there was the Glisten theme. I had a bit of the Awakening theme and the Lullaby theme, which I got to demonstrate for all the kids, which was really interesting.

Anyone that would like to learn the oboe or is currently learning the oboe, my advice is be patient. So it's a very... so we have a lot of emotional capabilities on the instrument, but it's a very emotional instrument in itself. It's a bit of a beast. The weather changes it and everything. But the key is to be patient and know that it's all worth it in the end. Yeah.