Baroque Oboe Lessons | A new project
An exciting opportunity was developed in 2020 for two oboe players to avail of Baroque oboe lessons with Andreas Helm, professor for period oboe at the Kunstuniversität Graz and at the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität. Andreas is also the Artistic Director of the Aestas Musica Summer School of Baroque Music in Varazdin, Croatia and teaches at the Trigonale Coaching in Ossiach, Carinthia and regular performer with the Irish Baroque Orchestra.
This collaboration with the Irish Baroque Orchestra aims to develop Baroque oboe playing in Ireland, specifically for participation in the Irish Youth Baroque Orchestra 2021. Two quality instruments by Wolfgang Kube were purchased after receiving funding through the Music Capital Scheme, which is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and managed by Music Network. Two oboists, María Rojas and Niamh O’Neill, took part in ten, one-hour music lessons with Andreas towards the end of 2020 and plan to continue with further lessons during early 2021. The feedback from the students was extremely positive and both will take part in the Irish Youth Baroque Orchestra Summer Course in July 2021.
Niamh has said “It’s such an exciting opportunity and a lovely project to be doing in an otherwise quite stressful year. Andreas is really super and very approachable and I hope we will get to meet in person soon.”
We are delighted with the progress of the project and we have commissioned another pair of Baroque oboes and a Baroque bassoon to widen the scope of Baroque players in the country even further, again with the assistance of the Music Capital Grant Scheme. You can learn more about the Irish Youth Baroque Orchestra at iybo.ie.