Listening to other oboists play is a great way to stay in the “loop,” get new ideas, and inspire your thoughts on a piece of music. I just got 2 new CDs of incredible oboe and English horn playing: Julie Giacobassi (with guest artists Rodger Weismeyer and Eugene Isatov) Eugene Isatov in solo New CDs [...]
Read MoreMaryn
In the past month, I’ve had 2 colleagues brave the bass oboe part in Holst’s Planets, one here in Chicago and one in Nashville. It’s a very cool part and doubles on oboe, and there are some juicy low B solo tidbits that are pretty scary. I’ve tried a Heckelphone before, but the few notes [...]
Read MoreWhen this time of year rolls around, I always get nostalgic for all of those good school memories I have of being at Eastman, in Rochester NY. By now, it is REALLY fall in Rochester and I associate that with getting back into the swing of things, oboe-wise. The school year always started with an [...]
Read MoreI’ve been playing more English horn lately and it’s got me thinking about the importance of a good bocal. Bocals can vary completely in sound, pitch, and stability, but finding the right combination for your horn and playing style can make a world of difference. Currently I’m playing a Laubin 3 and Hiniker 2 B11. [...]
Read MoreYou know when you’re kind of in a slump? Not a reed slump or an oboe slump necessarily, but just feeling blah? I’ve felt this way the last few days or so… nothing “wrong” per se, the weather’s been good and everything is really fine. Maybe it’s a momentary lack of motivation or just too [...]
Read MoreI was cleaning out my desk the other day and came across my whole collection of Monumental Reed Notes. The collection is actually just a stack of Post-It-Notes from my years of study with Richard Killmer at Eastman. I thought I would share some of them with you. Don’t worry about the detail… at first. [...]
Read MoreIt’s always fun to travel to festivals and gigs out of town, but it can make for unpredictable reeds. Planning ahead for multiple scenarios with a case full of gorgeous reeds is the ideal situation, but how realistic is it to make a reed in one city and expect it to be the same somewhere [...]
Read MoreIf you make a living playing music, you are probably aware of the following points: you are in business (as the sole owner of You, Inc.) marketing can be a major key to your success Music is both art and business, and if you depend on it to keep your lights on and food on [...]
Read MoreI woke up one Saturday in February to find a huge article in the New York Times about the abundance of available oboe positions among the nation’s top symphonies. As a member of the “next generation” of oboists that was mentioned in the article, I took issue with some of the stuff that was said. [...]
Read MorePlaying the oboe is hard enough as it is, so I try to keep my reed philosophy as simple as possible. I believe there are only a few things that make a good reed. The rest, as they say, is just opinion. A good reed must have: response – if it doesn’t make a sound, [...]
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How do you know if you'll like an oboe reed before you play it? You can't. When the rubber finally hits the road, it hardly matters if the reed is a great one, perfectly customized to your every desire, if it just plain doesn't work well for you. 
My name is Maryn Leister. I am a graduate of the Juilliard Pre-College Division and the Eastman School of Music, where I was a student of Richard Killmer. After graduating from college, I lived in Nashville, TN, then headed to Knoxville, TN, New York City, and finally Chicago...
