Weiss graduated from University High School and briefly took classes at USC and UCLA before being hired in 1965 to play oboe in the touring Metropolitan Opera National Company.

The iconic sound of an orchestra tuning is highly recognizable, even for those who've never set foot in a concert hall. Many ...

Oboe playing, like bird watching and taffy pulling, is a passion that seems to run in families. The earliest famous oboe clan was that of Frenchman Jean Philidor, who played at the court of Louis ...

The oboe is officially one of the most difficult instruments to play. Oboists, we feel for you: and not just because of the double-reed misery, the duck noises, the tuning issues and Jeremy Irons ...

Oboists have a reputation for being odd. A durable myth holds that blowing air through a double reed into a narrow tube puts undue pressure on the brain. (I played oboe as a kid, and I may not ...

TMM: To play the oboe you have to be part musician, part craftsman, part woodworker, and part scientist. We’re all super nerdy in our quest for beauty and expression. The reed is the part that ...

1. How and why did you choose to play your instrument? I was 10 years old and my father was deputy music advisor for Fife Region at that time, so I went along to a lot of county youth orchestra ...

By the 1800s, the size and instrumentation were much like the modern orchestra. An order was added to the tuning ritual, with each “family” of instruments taking its turn to tune with the oboe.