Alumnus Performs Oboe Concert

Professional oboist James Smith ’01 brought his musical talents to Westminster Oct. 8 to give a concert for students and faculty in the Werner Centennial Center and to spend time with students in a music class. He is an active chamber musician and new music advocate based in New York City.

After Headmaster Bill Philip welcomed James back to Westminster, James introduced his performance by talking about his life since graduating from Westminster, including his attendance at Northwestern University, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in political science and music, and at Yale, where he earned a master’s degree in music. He also discussed spending a year in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar and serving as a fellow in a postgraduate program run by Carnegie Hall and The Juilliard School, for which he performed and taught periodically at a New York City public school.

James described his typical day as practicing by himself, rehearsing with groups and playing concerts. “The beauty of being a musician is that it is never a 9-to-5 job, and you get to travel around the world,” he said.

Accompanied on the piano by Juilliard doctorial student Conor Hanick, James performed “Awake” from the Sonata for Oboe and Piano by Paul Hindemith (1938), four movements from François Couperin’s Royal Concerto (1722), and Robert Schumann’s Three Romances (1849).

In between the performances, he talked about the composers and how physically exhausting it is to play the oboe. “Being a musician is a lot like being an athlete,” he said. “You need to stay in shape.”

He ended by thanking Headmaster Philip for inviting him to perform at Westminster and the audience for listening. “It has been a lot of fun,” he said.

James also spent time describing his music theory background with David Chrzanowski’s Introduction to Music Theory class. He brought the score for "Awake" by Paul Hindemith and described some of the harmonic, rhythmic and melodic ideas the composer inserted into the music and played several passages of the piano part to demonstrate. He spoke to several students about the process of learning and playing music for an audience. Throughout his visit, he responded to numerous questions about playing the oboe and being a professional musician.