THE RESULTS:

Pin the Tail on the Oboe

Oboe Blow-Out New York

Friday, June 17, 1994 at
The New School, NYC, New York

Pin the Tail on the Oboe was an unusual experience for most of us. Rarely does an oboist have the chance to hear a sea of oboes and English horns made by the world's great manufacturers played back to back. Having no previous knowledge of which manufacturer made each instrument, all auditors were given survey forms where they rated each unnamed instrument from 1 to 10 after hearing it played briefly by a guest player. The instruments were divided into six categories: the first category was the professional model oboes for which Marsha Heller played the well-known oboe excerpt from Don Juan. The second category was oboes ranging in price from $2,000 to $3,000 for which Ms. Heller played an excerpt from Peter and the Wolf. (Incidentally, Ms. Heller was also responsible for the beautiful cover art on the OBOE BLOW-OUT NEW YORK programs.) The third category was oboes between $1,000 and $2,000 for which 14-year-old Justine Cohen played the classic Beatles tune Yesterday. The fourth category was oboes under $1,000 for which there was only one oboe, by Yamaha. Justine gave a demonstration of it anyway, playing Danny Boy, plus Happy Birthday for the President of Rigoutat oboes, Philippe Rigoutat. The fifth and six categories were professional model English horns and middle priced English horns. Marcia Butler demonstrated all the English horns by playing the English horn solo from the Roman Carnival Overture. When all the playing was over, the audience was extremely interested to know which instruments they had heard. It should be noted that when Nora read off the lists of instruments, there were many expressions of surprise and amazement heard from members of the audience. The overall effect this demonstration had was that it allowed all of us to fully understand the incredible number of quality options every oboist has in the 1990ís in terms of choosing an instrument. - Aaron Cohen

Pin The Tail On The Oboe Results

Pin the Tail on the Oboe scoring was computed as follows: First place votes are tabulated by assigning a 1-point value to each oboe which received the highest score on each individual scorecard. For example, 22 out of the 70 audience voters chose the Rigoutat Evolution as the best professional model oboe. Total points are tabulated by adding the total scores assigned by each audience member to each oboe.

OBOES

I. PROFESSIONAL MODEL OBOES            

II. $2,000 TO $3,000 RANGE OBOES

III. $1,000 TO $2,000 RANGE OBOES

IV. UNDER $1,000 OBOES

ENGLISH HORNS

I. PROFESSIONAL MODEL ENGLISH HORNS

*This instrument was initially disqualified because it could not be played with the manufacturer's bocal. With a Glover bocal (owned by Ms. Butler), all went well, and the instrument did very well.

II. MIDDLE PRICED ENGLISH HORNS