Reed music conference gets underway

About 1,000 participants from all over the world converge on campus this week for the annual meeting of the International Double Reed Society through Saturday, Aug. 14.

The appeal of oboes and bassoons will be illustrated in two public concerts connected with the conference:

* Jazz performers including Paul McCandless, oboe; Paul Hanson and Michael Rabinowitz, bassoon; the Joan Wildman Trio and more will present a free performance Friday, Aug. 13, at 5:30 p.m. at the Monona Terrace Convention Center.

* In addition, selected conference presenters will join the Madison Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John DeMain, in presenting the conference grand finale Saturday, Aug. 14, at 8 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater. On the musical agenda will be Handel’s Concerto for Oboe and Strings; Weisberg’s 1998 Concerto for Oboe, Bassoon and Strings; and Vivaldi’s Concert in C Major for Oboe and Strings.

Tickets to the join IDRS-Madison Symphony concert are available for $15 through the Union Theater Box Office, 262-2201. For more information about the conference, contact conference organizer and professor of music Marc Fink, 263-1900.

Oboes and bassoons are but the latest incarnations of double reed design. Progenitors hail from Europe, India, South America and the Middle East, and include crummhorns, shawms, pommers and dulcians. Many of the world’s most illustrious composers have directed their talents toward the double reeds. Mozart and Bach wrote concertos, cantatas, oratorios and choral works to showcase double reeds, according to Fink.

Hosting the society’s annual event is quite a feather in the university’s global cap. Participants are expected from Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Sweden, Iceland, Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan as well as the United States.

“The conference is a unique opportunity for so many styles of music to be performed live in one place on double reed instruments,” Fink says.