I talk a lot about what it was like for me to go from being a professional “student” to a professional oboe player. Like every journey, it had its ups and downs. Often times there seemed to be more downs than ups. It’s not like we are given a map or anything to make the route a little easier.
Looking back, it was all for a reason.
Looking back, I can connect the dots between all of the ups and the downs and understand why each one needed to happen exactly as it did to bring me to where I am today.
If you are an oboist out there looking to figure out where you belong… to discover your own voice, then give this video a few minutes of your time.
It’s a Stanford commencement address given by Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Inc.) in 2005.
I remember reading this a year ago, about a week after Jobs gave it. But thanks to YouTube, now you can see the real thing.
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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...
