Favorites Old & New

MEET THE MUSICIANS
LINDSAY WILEY, OBOE
What advice do you have for someone who
wants to learn your instrument?
Make sure to get private lessons! Oboe
is tough but really rewarding if you have
someone to guide you from the beginning.
Also, reed-making is something you will likely
experience if you play it through high school
and definitely beyond!
Tell us about your pre-concert routine.
I LOVE to go eat pho, which is a Vietnamese
noodle soup, a few hours before a concert.
Gets the brain functioning and centers me for
optimum focus. I also like to seclude myself
from others and run the music through my
head instead of practicing with the oboe.
What orchestral work have you never
performed live, but have always wanted to?
I would absolutely love to perform Mahler’s
Das Lied von der Erde. It has beautiful
woodwind lines, especially for oboe and
English horn.
What is your favorite popular artist, band, or
genre?
Radiohead has to be one of if not my favorite
non-classical artist out there. So many it’s
hard to choose, and I love lots of artists from
lots of genres, so not sure I can pick one
genre—but old-school hip hop is definitely up
there!
Tell us about your favorite memory from
working with LSO.
I had the opportunity to perform Respighi’s
Pines of Rome on English horn, which has a
super cool solo in the final movement I got to
perform with my LSO family a few years ago.
It was magic!!!
KIMBERLY BEASLEY, HORN
What advice do you have for someone who
wants to learn your instrument?
Music should be fun. Horn should be fun. Treat
the horn as an extension of yourself and
sing through it in whatever fashion speaks
to you. It can be hard work too, but each
breakthrough in skills opens a new world of
musical experiences.
Tell us about your pre-concert routine.
My pre-concert routine is easy: 1. Put the horn
together. 2. Blow a couple notes through the
little end to be sure sound comes out the big
end. 3. Head for the stage, but don’t forget the
music in your case.
What orchestral work have you never
performed live, but have always wanted to?
Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony. Fun horn
parts, fun everything parts … it just makes me
happy.
Tell us about your favorite memory from
working with LSO.
I absolutely love this orchestra, so almost
every opportunity to play with LSO becomes
a favorite memory. I'll pick two instead. One
was a concert at St. Paul's. The program
featured a bunch of beautiful solo/melody
lines doubled between principal cello and
3rd horn (thank you composers!), and I got to
soloistically blend with the cello sound much
of the evening—very satisfying. The other
was a Halloween concert several years ago.
I got to dress up in my mother's wedding
dress and "process" every time I entered or
left stage as if walking down the aisle. Making
Ed Polochick crack up and almost lose it as
he looked back and realized he was cueing a
bride was worth the effort. Seeing my dad's
reaction to his daughter wearing his wife's
wedding dress on stage was priceless too.
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