Steve Hammer

Oboe Reed Master Steve Hammer Interview April 2020

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I interviewed Oboe Reed Master, Steve Hammer in April 2020.  Watch the whole interview below. He talks about Bernoulli’s principle, his reed making philosophy, his favorite tools and what, in his opinion, the biggest reed making mistakes are that students make.

 

This interview takes place in preparation for the launch of THE OBOE REED MASTER SERIES starting in April 2020. It is a 10-session series which is part of The Dynamic Reed maker, a three month- long intensive reed making training program. This is fantastic new way to dive deep into the reed making questions that have always baffled you. Ask the master! This live and interactive series takes place in the JK Double Reed Making Zoom Reed Room. Each Oboe Reed Master will be joining twice with at least a week between the two sessions. This gives you a chance to digest the topic and try things out so that you can return to the second session to share your own results, ask questions and dive even deeper into the topic. Please enjoy the interview! Find out more here.

 

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RiG 2019-2020/1 October 2019: An Invitation

Reflecting in Gratitude Series 2019-2020/1

 

Dear Fellow LSM Alum,

The prairie in June is remarkable in its wide-open mosquito-ey heaviness. It was 1989. I had turned sixteen that very month, no driver’s license yet, parents still married to each other. I was just beginning to sense that maybe my little brother Paul was not some bitter curse from God.

Setting my suitcase and oboe case down in the dorm of Augustana College was the symbolic start of the first month I would spend away from my family.

Traveling out of Arlington, Texas is easier than traveling into Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The long day left me alone with my own thoughts. What occupied my mind? Counting. Thirty of days of LSM. Seven, or maximum eight changes of clothes. There was no way around it.

At some point, I was going to have to wash clothes.

I realize now how fortunate I was. Of all the possible sources for worry that fateful day, my biggest concern was if I’d figure out how to use the washing machine.

I am grateful that my mother found the one-dose laundry detergent packets and tucked them into my suitcase. Half-way through LSM a couple of weeks later, I stood in the bowels of the dormitory with my handful of quarters before the rows of machines and thanks to the portioned packet of detergent, I had one less decision to make.

It is a little thing. But as you know, those little things add up. In fact, the gift in this story is not the laundry detergent (a little thing), but my willingness to share my worry with my mother as a teenage girl, and her ability to hear and respond. That’s HUGE!


LSM is embarking on a gratitude campaign and I will be prompting you over the next few months. Each email will include a link to a short survey asking you to share what you are grateful for. This is a discipline and I invite you to join me. I challenge you to avoid repetition. You’ll get beyond the standard answers quickly enough and that is where the magic happens. If you already have a gratitude practice you understand what happens when you walk through your day and through your memories with a heightened awareness of the abundance around you.

Please take a moment to recall your start at LSM. For what or for whom are you grateful?

Thanks to a collaborative effort with Tom Bandar, LSM Executive Director, plans are underwaye included. for an LSM alumni reunion during LSM 2020 Festival Weekend July 22-26. More information is forthcoming, and I would be so grateful if you would indicate a willingness and capacity to assist in the planning and execution.

You can get in touch with us at: alumni@lutheransummermusic.org.

Best wishes,

Jeanine Krause

Student: 1989-1991

Intern: 1992

Counselor: 1994

This is number 1 in the 2019-2020 Reflecting in Gratitude Campaign

“We, the LSM alumni remain connected through faith and music. We lived the experience that grew from the mission and vision of our revered founding fathers and mothers. The founders are now passing the torch to us, trusting us to preserve that which most transformed our lives, fold it into the challenges and advantages of our present day, and enable the enrichment of further generations of the LSM community.”

– Jeanine Krause, LSM ‘89-’91

LSM is embarking on a gratitude campaign. Alumni receive a monthly email containing a reflection from Jeanine Krause, alumni-related announcements, and a link inviting you to share your personal LSM stories and what you are most grateful for.

RiG 2019-2020/2 November 2019: Lifelong Friends

Reflecting in Gratitude Series 2019-2020/2

Please note: this post was written by my lifelong friend, Edward Obermueller.

So, what is formed at LSM? One of the numerous things is truly life-altering friendships.

Who is the friend you met at LSM who has accompanied you through more than one phase of your life, with whom you celebrate wins and mourn losses? Name this person and make and expression of gratitude for this friendship on this Reflecting in Gratitude Survey.

The other day I heard from a dear friend whom I met at LSM 30 years ago. As I am putting the finishing touches on my own summer camp, my mind is on the relationships that form at these special times. Lutheran Summer Music was my introduction to the wider world. Coming from Wyoming, I had no idea there were other people who liked to connect around music and faith.

Going away from home as a high school student to stay for a month on a college campus, to be challenged by an orchestra that was better than anything I had ever experienced before, to take private lessons and be in a quartet, to have theory and ear training classes, AND to have worship services every evening that highlighted the importance of music in worship—all of that radically changed the course of my life.

But the best part was the people I met. Looking back, some of the most important people in my life came from LSM.

In the case of my friend, it is truly an amazing thing to look back on all of the ways our lives have taken twists and turns over the years. We have both since married, divorced, married again, had children, moved, moved again, taught, performed, lived abroad, and started businesses. Through it all, our shared love of music kept us connected. Occasionally, we have reconnected artistically and played together, her oboe blending with my violin. What fun! And very fulfilling as the years go by.

Thank you to all who participated so vulnerably in the first gratitude survey last month, sharing the trepidations you had at the very start of your LSM journey and how with whom you navigated them. Close, life-long friendships, the ones that anchor you and aid you in the integration of your life experiences: this is the recurring theme and the prism through which light flows.

Please take a moment to fill out this Gratitude Survey (linked above) and reflect on a significant LSM friendship you have nurtured and been nurtured by. Be sure to then share your response and this email with that friend directly, allowing them to share in the joy of your thoughts and words. The months and years may stretch on, you may be separated by a state or by an ocean, and strangely neither time nor distance are particularly significant; rather, these relationships transcend these things.

Thanks to a collaborative effort with Tom Bandar, LSM Executive Director, plans are underway for an LSM alumni reunion during LSM 2020 Festival Weekend July 22-26. More information is forthcoming, and I would be so grateful if you would indicate a willingness and capacity to assist in the planning and execution. If you can’t do that, we would simply be grateful for your presence.

You can get in touch with us at: alumni@lutheransummermusic.org.

Best wishes,

Edward Obermueller

“I am grateful for the LSM community, established through traditions over the many years before I came to LSM. The community created an incredibly unique environment that enabled me to come out of my social shell and quickly make close, life-long friends.”

–Jami McLaren, LSM 1997

This is number 2 in the 2019-2020 Reflecting in Gratitude Campaign

“We, the LSM alumni remain connected through faith and music. We lived the experience that grew from the mission and vision of our revered founding fathers and mothers. The founders are now passing the torch to us, trusting us to preserve that which most transformed our lives, fold it into the challenges and advantages of our present day, and enable the enrichment of further generations of the LSM community.”

– Jeanine Krause, LSM ‘89-’91

LSM is embarking on a gratitude campaign. Alumni receive a monthly email containing a reflection from Jeanine Krause, alumni-related announcements, and a link inviting you to share your personal LSM stories and what you are most grateful for.