Boston Woodwind Society

Officers Matthew Ruggiero President Stephanie Busby Executive Secretary Richard Schaul-Yoder Vice-President Emilian Badea Jonathan Cohler Richard Gilbert Isabelle Plaster Kenneth Radnofsky Carol Sager Helenanne Wright Advisory Board Laura Ahlbeck Doriot Anthony Dwyer John Ferrillo Marianne Gedigian Craig Nordstrom Richard Ranti Robert Sheena Fenwick Smith William Wzresien Merit Awards Doriot Anthony Dwyer Flute Merit Award Ralph Gomberg Oboe Merit Award Kenneth Radnofsky Saxophone Merit Award Sherman Walt Bassoon Merit Award Harold Wright Clarinet Merit Award

PRESS RELEASE December 2010 1) Surviving in a Sluggish Economy. Times are still tough for many Americans. Unemployment rates are stuck at nearly 10%, banks have resumed foreclosures, and many people continue to lose their homes. Although there are glimmers of hope, there are no signs of a strong economic comeback any time soon. One result of this downturn has been that art groups and non-profit organizations of every stripe—from the biggest to the smallest—have taken a big hit. Boston Woodwind Society is no exception. But we’re happy to say although we’ve had to trim our sails a bit, we’re still afloat. How long we’ll be able to stay afloat is a question that will ultimately be decided by our friends and donors who believe in the value of what we’re doing and who have been so generously supportive in the past. We thank them profusely; without them there would be no Boston Woodwind Society. 2) Double Reed Days. We have had to suspend our practice of sponsoring our Double Reed Days annually. We now schedule them as our resources allow. We do this to preserve sufficient capital for our Merit Award Programs, which mean so much to talented young woodwind players. We’re thrilled to say that plans are under way to present our next Double Reed Day in late April or early May of 2011. The venue and guest artists are yet to be determined. We will post updated information about this eagerly anticipated event on our website as soon as it becomes available. 3) New BWS Website. We’re excited about our newly designed and updated website that is currently being designed. It will display information about current and past events, describe our mission, allow visitors to make donations easily and safely, enable people to submit comments, and provide copious amounts of photographs for informative and leisurely viewing. We will announce the launch date of our dazzling new website in January. 4) Merit Awards. We’ll be holding our annual Merit Award Competitions again in 2011. They continue to be popular and seem to draw applicants from an ever-widening geographical area. In 2010, BWS awarded four cash prizes of $1,000 each and a number of Honorable Mention awards that totaled an additional $1,500. These competitions comprise the core of BWS’s mission and go a long way in recognizing and encouraging the achievements of talented woodwind students. Since its founding in 2003, BWS has awarded more than $25,000 in merit awards. 5) BWS in Asia. Among the projects and activities associated with our connection to Asia, we’re particularly proud of having awarded a bassoon to Vince Nico Ocampo, a talented young man from the Phillipines, and the creation of a Distiguished Performer Award. This award carries with it a $1,000 prize, and was awarded to Ngyuen Hoang Tung, oboist from Vietnam. BWS President Matthew Ruggiero met these two talented gentlemen last summer in Hong Kong, where he was spending his nineteenth summer helping to train woodwind players of the Asian Youth Orchestra. Vince had told him the bassoon he was using belonged to his teacher and that his family had no money to buy one for him. Luckily for Vince, BWS was able to give him full possession of a Fox Model 240 bassoon as part of our new Instrument Donation Project, a project that secures and then donates instruments to needy talented young players. Oboist Hoang Yung earned an award of a thousand dollars as a result of his performance of Mozart's Oboe Quartet, which he performed at Hong Kong's Academy for Performing Arts. He played with grace and true understanding of the music, exercising precise control over the technical difficulties, but never missing an opportunity to shape each phrase so that the overarching structure of Mozart's masterpiece was always at the forefront. Part of our mission is to recognize exceptional performances such as these and to encourage the young performers who work so hard to achieve them. 6) Sectional Training Sessions. BWS continues to support a program that enables leading woodwind artists from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to lead sectional rehearsals for members of our area’s youth orchestras. The young players are always thrilled to learn from the masters. 7) Innovation. Continuing to carry out its mission of creating learning and performance opportunities for woodwind players, BWS presented a Reed Making Seminar at New England Conservatory. Bassoonist Richard Schaul-Yoder lectured on the Skinner Method of reed making. He enlivened his presentation with slides and then gave audience members an opportunity to ask questions in what proved to be an informative and entertaining event. Among those present were Richard Svoboda, principal bassoonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and BWS President Matthew Ruggiero. And last spring, BWS once again provided the music for the Commencement ceremonies of Boston University’s Phi Beta Kappa Society and the University Professors Program. To perform for these prestigious ceremonies BWS assembled a group of Boston’s most active freelance musicians. They performed Mozart’s Serenade No. 11 in Eb Major and selections from The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute.