Greetings Bay Area Music Community!

The award winning Oakland Youth Orchestra is holding its second round of auditions for new members in August 2013. Full details, applications and required excerpts can be found on oyo.org As someone who is a vibrant part of the Bay Area's music community, we wanted to let you know about our upcoming auditions and hope you will help us get the word out. 

We have an exciting season lined up for our 50th Anniversary Season including a side by side performance with the Oakland East Bay Symphony and the Oakland Symphony Chorus at the Paramount Theatre in May 2014

Free Community Open House

Saturday, November 10
Hours: 10:30am–2:30pm

Click here to register

San Francisco Opera hosts a Community Open House at the War Memorial Opera House on Saturday, November 10, from 10:30am to 2:30pm. Celebrating the Company's 90th Season, the Open House is free to the public and will feature events and activities for all ages.

This special community event is structured for individuals and families who have a growing curiosity about opera and are interested in an introduction to the world of opera and stage production, and for anyone who wants to have an up close and personal opportunity to experience this grand art form deconstructed.

                                                                             
The Open House will feature:

• Onstage technical and musical demonstrations, with Maestro Nicola Luisotti, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus, soprano Melody Moore and tenor Brian Jagde.

° Technical demonstrations highlighting set-building, lighting, and other technical elements of opera productions are 25 minutes each and begin at 11am, 12:30pm and 2pm.

° Tosca and Lohengrin musical demonstrations are 45 minutes each and begin at 11:35am and 1:05pm.

                                                        
• Family fun in the Opera House lobby, including a scavenger hunt, costume displays, and arts and crafts projects like creating props from Carmen and designing costumes from Tosca.

• A makeup project inspired by the War Memorial Opera House.

• An opera photo booth where you can try on a costume piece and pose on a piece of scenery!

• Screenings of Carmen for Families—The Movie! with a live introduction, from 11am–12:15pm and 1:05pm–2:20pm. Stars will be signing autographs after each screening!

• Enter to win an exclusive backstage tour the day of the Open House.

• War Memorial food and refreshment concessions, as well as the San Francisco Opera Shop, will be open.

San Francisco Opera's November 10 Community Open House is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required, however registering online will enter you in a random drawing to complimentary tickets to a production of your choice! Choose between:

• Two tickets to Tosca
• Two tickets to one of our Summer 2013 operas
• Four tickets to The Secret Garden at Cal Performances

The War Memorial Opera House is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue at Grove Street in San Francisco. Patrons are encouraged to use public transportation to attend San Francisco Opera events. The War Memorial Opera House is within walking distance of the Civic Center BART station and near numerous bus lines, including 5, 21, 47, 49 and the F Market Street. For more public transportation information, visit bart.gov and sfmuni.com.

Fingering Diagram Builder

Click on this link:Fingering Diagram Builder

                                       I was told of this Fingering Diagram Builder from a former student and thought it would be of help in teaching.Rufus Olivier 

Peninsula Symphony bassoon vacancy

The position of Principal Bassoon in the Peninsula Symphony will be open beginning late in the 2011-12 Season. The Peninsula Symphony is a community orchestra, performing pairs of concerts with internationally recognized soloists at the Flint Center in Cupertino and San Mateo Performing Arts Center (now under renovation) as well as at Stanford University, the Fox Theater in Redwood City, and other locations on the San Francisco Peninsula

We have tentatively scheduled an audition for the evening of Monday, October 3, 2011 . Candidates will be asked to play a solo selection of their choice and four orchestral excerpts. If you are interested in participating, please email for further information. Please include a brief list of your previous orchestral experience. I will send the complete audition info (including sheet music for the four orchestral excerpts) and schedule a time for your audition. For further information about the Peninsula Symphony, please go to peninsulasymphony.org.

Mitchell Sardou Klein, Music Director

Concert May 13, 2011

Hello all,
I am posting this to let you all know that my dad ( Rufus Olivier) will be performing at the Dinklespiel auditorium at Stanford University on Friday May 13, 2011.@ 8 p.m

The Woodwind Quintet’s program will include Darius Milhaud’s La Cheminée du roi René, Robert Muczynski’s Duos for Flute and Clarinet, Paul Hindemith’s Kleine Kammermusk, and other selections.

$5.00 students
$10.00 general
$9.00 Seniors
General seating

Hope to see you there!
His first born:-)

Fox Bassoon For Sale

My student wishes to sell his Fox Bassoon, model 601 it has a great sound and scale. The finish is black lacquer, the keys are gold which makes this horn stunning to look at! Direct all inquiries to Phil Nash at: lowintense@hotmail.com ....RO






























mailto:lowintense@hotmail.com................Rufus

KRAPP’S ENDGAME, by Shinji Eshima

SHINJI ESHIMA.

Recently I had the great pleasure of hearing a great new work for bassoon, it was not enough that the piece was great but also two great local musicians and good friends were responsible for the project. The great bassoonist Steve Dibner commissioned and performed the latest work of the great bass player and composer Shinji Eshima, both bay area musicians. "KRAPP'S ENDGAME" for bassoon,string quartet, and optional Buddhist monk was composed for Mr.Dibner who asked for a piece that somehow expressed the writings of Samuel Beckett, specifically his one-man play "Krapp's Last Tape". In this play, a man is reviewing his life through recordings he has made of himself on each of his birthdays, chronicling his achievements and goals throughout the years. He comes to the conclusion that instead, he should have spent his life experiencing love and human touch. The last section of Mr. Eshima's work is inspired by Allen Ginsberg's poem Song." The following is an excerpt:

The weight of the world

is love.

Under the burden

of solitude,

under the burden

of dissatisfaction

the weight,

the weight we carry

is love.

This is Mr. Eshima's offering as a "solution" to Krapp"s circumstance.

The opening statement in the piece is marked "Crying despair" this marking should give you a clue to how powerful the work is, I was mesmerized by the emotional content of the work, Mr. Dibner played with such passion that he almost had me in tears, this does not let down thru most of the piece, Mr. Eshima makes use of the wide range of the bassoon effectively and passionately, bending the high register and alternating fingerings for a great effect. Just when you think nothing else can happen all of a sudden the quartet starts to chant while they play, all of theses effects are not gimmicks but help tell a story. This is a deep work almost spiritual. The work is accessible to most advanced bassoon players on a technical level, however on a emotional level one may have to have a bit of life experiences to get the most out of it. I highly recommend this work. Bravo and thank you Mr. Eshima and Mr. Dibner for this new exciting bassoon piece.....Rufus Olivier

You can find this piece at: trevcomusic@msn.com www.trevcomusic.com


SHINJI ESHIMA, a graduate of Stanford University and of the Juilliard School, he is currently a double-bassist in the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and associate principal with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. He is on the faculty at San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As a composer, he composed the music for the 450 Geary Theater's production of "The Snow Queen," which ran for three seasons. The San Francisco Examiner described his music as "ranging from bucolic pipings to full scale ecclesiastical gothic..." In 1995, he was commissioned to write a piece commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing for which he wrote "August 6th." This premiered at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on that anniversary. He composed two hymns for the Buddhist Churches of America which were published and were recorded by opera singers Elizabeth Bishop and Hector Velasquez. He also released a CD of his music based on Buddhist gathas. In 2000 the Ensemble en Sol in Mexico commissioned him to write a chamber piece which received its San Francisco premiere at a Donald Runnicles and Friends performance. In 2001 the percussion ensemble Adesso, premiered his "Generations" at the Old First Church. In 2002 Gary Karr premiered "Grat-etude" and Liben Publishers published another solo bass work "If it's tuesday it must be up-bow," a tribute to his former teacher, David Walter, along with a CD recorded by the composer. His trio "Despot's Rage a Slave's Revenge" for Violoncello, Marimba and Piano, composed for famed Bay Area 'cellist Emil Miland received its premiere in 2003 at Old First Church. His Trio C-E-B, "The Toadfish," written for the TRIAD Trio, Including Carey Bell, clarinet and Bryndon Hassman, piano as well as Emil Miland, had its premiere at the Noe Valley Chamber Series. His scores for Liebe Wetzel’s Lunatique Fantastique’s productions of “Nutcracker, Nutz and Boltz,” “Chicken Stock” and “E.O.9066” are performed at the Marsh Theater in San Francisco. In 2008 ERM Media selected his score for “August 6th” for string orchestra to be recorded by the Millennium Symphony and conducted by Robert Ian Winston. This CD, a compilations of several composers entitled “Made in the Americas” was released in 2009. Most recently, his piece “Krapp’s Endgame,” commissioned and composed for Steven Dibner, premiered also at Noe Valley in a benefit performance for the Daniel Pearl Foundation, and has subsequently been published by TrevCo Music in December 2009.