Friday, September 13, 2019

Emily and WIU Music




GOT A TEXT from Second String Music Hall of Famer Pete Magliocco last night. It had a link to a video. "Your daughter is a badass!" the text read. Coming from a trombone and guitar player, it's high praise indeed.

Pete has deep ties to Western Illinois University, where Emily is a professor of music and Pete's father also taught music for many years. Pete saw the above video of Emily playing her oboe and giving some tips to high school students getting ready for ILMEA auditions.

ILMEA is a huge deal and I remember when Emily had auditions when she was at Quincy High School. I also remember being in the Peoria Civic Center for a big concert her senior year and hearing Emily's oboe drifting through the big arena.

Now the student has become the teacher and it's a beautiful thing.

Every day we get parents coming into the store looking for school band instruments, and most say they just want their kids to play something. Not everybody will make a career out of a musical instrument. But you gotta start somewhere, and you never know where it might take you. In Emily's case, it's taken her to Eastman School of Music for a master's degree, Toronto for a year of studies and Europe with her Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp friends.

And she's in her fifth year teaching oboe and music at a major state university. Not bad for a Quincy girl who has yet to see her 28th birthday!

Can you tell I'm one proud papa?

Her playing is beautiful and melodic, enough to earn her the ultimate compliment from another musician - badass!

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