Oboe

The Baltimore Symphony's principal oboist is one of the orchestra's most admired players -- and for good reason. In an orchestral performance, he can play a familiar solo -- such as the oboe's melody in the slow movement of Brahms' Violin Concerto -- and make listeners feel that they have never before properly heard it. Joseph Turner rarely makes solo appearances, and when he does, they are not to be missed.Joseph Turner's recital is Sunday at 3: 30 p.m. at the Second Presbyterian Church, 4200 St. Paul St. Admission is free.

"It was a compulsion. I had no other choice," Katherine Needleman said regarding what lead her down the path to a career in music. "I would've been a pianist except my technique was too limited. " Though she's experimented with many other instruments, Needleman, 34, who moved from Iowa to Ellicott City when she was 7 and now lives in Dickeyville, finally settled on the oboe while at college and has been the principal oboist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2003. Since that time, she was been a part of nearly all BSO performances and is especially looking forward to playing the Strauss Concerto next season.

Yesterday afternoon's Chamber Music Society of Baltimore concert centered around violinist Earl Carlyss and pianist Ann JTC Schein, with a strong assist from oboist James Ostryniec.These musicians joined forces for a new (1991) work by Ingrid Arauco, a young composer who teaches at the University of North Carolina and who studied at Goucher College, the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Pennsylvania.Her Trio has some lovely moments, particularly in an intense and slow final movement that begins with a gravely beautiful solo cadenza for violin and ends with an ethereal one for oboe.

Period concert -- Musica Antiqua of Maryland will perform its annual concert at 2 p.m. today at Liriodendron Mansion, 502 W. Gordon St., Bel Air. The concert will feature performers in period costumes using period instruments to play light classics, show tunes, ragtime, Irving Berlin, traditional Irish and Scottish music, and a Yo-Yo Ma piece, Gabriel's Oboe. Free. 410-529-0791.

Even longtime, avid Beethoven fans may not know he ever wrote a trio for the unlikely combination of two oboes and English horn, while those well aware of the fact have probably had precious few opportunities to hear that music performed in concert. So the novelty factor was pronounced Tuesday night at An die Musik, where the Trio La Milpa offered not just the Beethoven piece, but works by two other composers who likewise found inspiration in this unusually reedy form. Three woodwind instruments are capable of producing only so much musical activity.

Period concert -- Musica Antiqua of Maryland will perform its annual concert at 2 p.m. today at Liriodendron Mansion, 502 W. Gordon St., Bel Air. The concert will feature performers in period costumes using period instruments to play light classics, show tunes, ragtime, Irving Berlin, traditional Irish and Scottish music, and a Yo-Yo Ma piece, Gabriel's Oboe. Free. 410-529-0791.

Judith Lloyd Famous, a Harford County music teacher who had been diagnosed this month with cancer of the pancreas and liver, died Tuesday at Franklin Square Hospital Center. She was 59. Mrs. Famous was a longtime oboe player who gave private lessons and taught for 30 years in county schools. Most recently, she taught at Prospect Mill, Forest Lake and Bel Air elementary schools. Judith Lloyd was born in Philadelphia and came to the county after graduating from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. She received her master's degree in education from Towson University.

Henri Lazarof is a composer whose name always rings a bell, but whose music is rarely played. The music of Lazarof, who was born in Bulgaria and who completed his training in Israel, Italy and country, does not belong to any discernible national or stylistic school. He has taught for almost 30 years at the University of California at Los Angeles, once the home of Arnold Schoenberg, but Lazarof's individual music cannot be pigeon-holed as serialist. The music is thorny -- as a performance of his "Concertante II" (1988)

Ten years ago, a 16-year-old from the Howard County neighborhood of Dunloggin walked onto the stage of Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to perform part of Mozart's Oboe Concerto. Her back-up band was the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. This week, she'll be in the same spot on that stage to play the same concerto (all of it this time) with the same ensemble, but not as a guest soloist. Katherine Needleman will merely be stepping forward from her usual position at the center of the BSO's woodwind section.

The winds of change have brought calm seas and prosperous voyages to the Annapolis Symphony over the past few seasons. The most significant addition has been conductor Leslie Dunner, who is in his third year at the ASO helm. Under his baton, the artistic fortunes of the local orchestra have done nothing but climb. Instrumentally speaking, the most valuable player added to the orchestra in recent years could be Fatma Daglar, who has held the ASO's principal oboe chair since 1997. Daglar, who began studying her instrument as a high school student in her native Istanbul, Turkey, will take the solo spotlight at Maryland Hall this weekend.

An excellent and early Valentine's Day musical bouquet can be enjoyed at 8 p.m. Saturday when the Candlelight Concert Society presents the New York Chamber Soloists at Smith Theatre on the campus of Howard Community College. Music of the 19th century is labeled Romantic music as a reflection, in part, of the late 18th- century German Romantic movement in literature and the visual arts initiated by writers such as Goethe and Schiller and visual artists such as Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge.

Bach and Beethoven; Beethoven and Bach. The Columbia Orchestra, conducted by Jason Love, is starting the concert season tomorrow night at the Jim Rouse Theatre with a beautiful program beneficial to all listeners. Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 is probably the signature piece for classical music. Its opening motive (ta-ta-ta-tum) is probably familiar to most people older than age 5. Its power and sweep define romantic music (this piece is most evocative of the picture of Beethoven with wild, unruly hair)

The National Symphony Orchestra played the first subscription concert of its 75th anniversary season Wednesday night at the Kennedy Center sounding downright youthful - in the best sense. A fresh, eager quality in the playing enlivened a chestnut-heavy program potently conducted by Leonard Slatkin, now in his 10th year with the NSO. From the hushed, expectant opening of Weber's Oberon Overture, the conductor's knack for revealing subtleties of instrumental coloring and creating rich atmosphere paid off handsomely.

Even longtime, avid Beethoven fans may not know he ever wrote a trio for the unlikely combination of two oboes and English horn, while those well aware of the fact have probably had precious few opportunities to hear that music performed in concert. So the novelty factor was pronounced Tuesday night at An die Musik, where the Trio La Milpa offered not just the Beethoven piece, but works by two other composers who likewise found inspiration in this unusually reedy form. Three woodwind instruments are capable of producing only so much musical activity.

The present and, perhaps, the future of classical music came together briefly Tuesday night at the Maryland Institute College of Art. It was an interesting sound - and sight. This presentation by Concert Lab, a partnership between MICA and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians, included three compositions, two of them premieres. Passages from one were reprised, accompanied by computer-generated animation. Aural and visual combinations are not new. Orchestras have been known to match highly descriptive music - Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite, say, or Strauss' Alpine Symphony - with video or still photos.

Concert Lab, founded in 2003 by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra violinist Ellen Orner as an outlet for new music, will present two world premieres played by BSO members in a free concert today at the Maryland Institute College of Art. The program includes Landscape - After Yves Tanguy for solo violin by noted composer Benjamin Lees, a distinctive and prolific force in American music for the past 50 years. This piece was commissioned by and dedicated to Orner. Also being premiered is Moods for oboe and string quartet by Chia-Yu Hsu, a work dedicated to BSO principal oboist Katherine Needleman.

Performing musicians are like salesmen. They sell us pieces of music that -- under ordinary circumstances -- we might not want to listen to.This came to mind last night in Stephens Hall at Towson State University at the first evening concert of the International Double Reed Festival. Selling the piano, the violin or even the cello repertory is relatively easy: So much of the merchandise is quality stuff, bearing labels with names such as Chopin, Bach and Beethoven. The repertory for bassoon and oboe -- the two instruments performed upon last night -- is quite another matter.

An excellent and early Valentine's Day musical bouquet can be enjoyed at 8 p.m. Saturday when the Candlelight Concert Society presents the New York Chamber Soloists at Smith Theatre on the campus of Howard Community College. Music of the 19th century is labeled Romantic music as a reflection, in part, of the late 18th- century German Romantic movement in literature and the visual arts initiated by writers such as Goethe and Schiller and visual artists such as Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge.

Judith Lloyd Famous, a Harford County music teacher who had been diagnosed this month with cancer of the pancreas and liver, died Tuesday at Franklin Square Hospital Center. She was 59. Mrs. Famous was a longtime oboe player who gave private lessons and taught for 30 years in county schools. Most recently, she taught at Prospect Mill, Forest Lake and Bel Air elementary schools. Judith Lloyd was born in Philadelphia and came to the county after graduating from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. She received her master's degree in education from Towson University.

Ten years ago, a 16-year-old from the Howard County neighborhood of Dunloggin walked onto the stage of Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to perform part of Mozart's Oboe Concerto. Her back-up band was the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. This week, she'll be in the same spot on that stage to play the same concerto (all of it this time) with the same ensemble, but not as a guest soloist. Katherine Needleman will merely be stepping forward from her usual position at the center of the BSO's woodwind section.