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Rick Rogers, Fine Arts Editor

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Contact Rick --Email: rrogers@opubco.com. Phone: (405)475-3289.

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Oboist continues search for perfect reed

BY RICK ROGERS Comments 0
Published: November 8, 2009

NORMAN — The first thing you notice when you enter Johanna Cox’s studio at the University of Oklahoma is a table filled with cane, knives and twine, the tools of the trade for those who make their living playing the oboe. Reed making is a delicate and painstaking process that frustrates as often as it satisfies. And while a perfect reed may not exist, oboists will never stop trying to find it.

More Info

Johanna Cox

→Title: Assistant professor of oboe, University of Oklahoma; oboist, Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

→Hometown: Rochester, N.Y.
→Education: Bachelor of Music in oboe performance, Performer’s Certificate, Eastman School of Music; Master of Music in oboe performance, Northwestern University.

Faculty recital

→Featuring: Oboist Johanna Cox, violinist Rebecca Ansel and pianist Thomas Bandy. Also performing will be Carl Rath, Anthony Stoops and John Allen.

→When: 8 p.m. Monday.
→Where: Pitman Recital Hall at University of Oklahoma.
→Notable: Will include the U.S. premiere of a Jacques Hetu composition for oboe, violin and piano.

"It’s pretty crucial to work on reeds throughout the week since only one out of three may be a good performance reed,” Cox said recently. "You’re only as good an oboe player as you are a reed maker.”

Like many professional musicians, Cox divides her time between teaching and performing. In addition to being assistant professor of oboe at OU, Cox plays oboe and English horn with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. She’s also a chamber music coach for three university woodwind quintets and two trios.

Cox grew up in Rochester, N.Y., home to the prestigious Eastman School of Music. At age 17, she won her first music competition and got to perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ oboe concerto with the Rochester Philharmonic. Cox earned a bachelor’s degree and a performer’s certificate from Eastman before pursuing a master’s degree at Chicago’s Northwestern University.

"I had so many opportunities when I lived in Chicago, including getting to sub in the Chicago Symphony four times,” Cox said. "I freelanced for several years which meant having to wait for the phone to ring. But I played in orchestras, chamber music ensembles and studio recording for commercials. I also played in the Chicago Civic Orchestra under wonderful conductors like Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta and Daniel Barenboim.”

Along with that never-ending search for the perfect reed, many oboists bemoan their instrument’s lack of solo repertoire. Cox has dealt with that issue by commissioning new works for the oboe, most recently a trio for oboe, violin and piano by Canadian composer Jacques Hetu.

Cox and her twin sister, a violinist with the San Diego Symphony, premiered the work at a convention in Birmingham, England, earlier this year.

"I had recorded a woodwind quintet by Hetu with a group called the Prairie Winds and really liked his writing,” Cox said. "I approached him with a request to write a piece, got a response from him within a week, received a grant to cover the cost of commissioning the piece and had the manuscript within four months.”

Cox, along with violinist Rebecca Ansel and pianist Thomas Bandy, will give the work its U.S. premiere at a faculty recital. Scheduled at 8 p.m. Monday, the concert also will include one movement of a Bach flute sonata (transcribed for oboe), the "Sonatine” by Pierre Sancan, "Incantation and Allegro” for oboe, bassoon and piano by Nancy Galbraith, and a trio by John Berners for the unlikely combination of oboe, trombone and double bass.

"I enjoy playing new music. Since I’ve been at OU, I’ve played pieces by (OU faculty member) Roland Barrett and (former school of music dean) Ken Fuchs. It’s exciting to be involved in that whole process, bringing something new to the repertoire. Sometime in the future, I hope to record all of these pieces — a ‘New Music for Oboe’ disc.”