Play It Forward – Ben Price
Music that inspires one of All Classical Portland’s Youth Artist Ambassadors, Ben Price.
Meet Oboeist, Ben Price, a recent graduate of Grant High School and one of All Classical Portland’s Youth Artist Ambassadors for 2022.
Recently we asked Ben what pieces of music have inspired them to become the musician they are today. Here are a few of Ben’s selections.
Anna Clyne, DANCE: for Cello and Orchestra
“DANCE is not your typical, run-of-the-mill concerto. It’s much more elegiac, austere, and free-flowing. DANCE boils down music to its rawest emotions, flawlessly conveyed through the cello.”
Madeleine Dring, Italian Dance
“This piece makes use of the musical device ‘hemiola’ (a strong feeling of three in a piece with two primary beats), which enhances its jubilant, dancelike mood.”
Valerie Coleman, Umoja
“The piece that made Valerie Coleman and the IMANI Winds world-famous is even better in orchestra form. The word Umoja means unity, and is the first principle of Kwanzaa. Originally, the piece was composed as a call-and-response song, but the orchestra version develops already existing themes and adds a magnificent opening and celebratory ending.”
Vivian Fine, Sonatina for Oboe
“Of all of Vivian Fine’s oboe music, this piece is the most easily digestible and amusing. With one substantial movement bookended by two light, playful movements, this piece journeys from light, to dark, to light again, all while showing off the oboe’s many characters and colors.”
Aaron Copland, Symphony No. 3
“Copland’s most widely performed symphony is an apex of his symphonic expression, taking the very form of the symphony to new heights. I enjoy how vividly I can see the landscapes of the western United States in each movement of this brilliant symphony; it sounds so inimitably Americana.”
About Ben
Ben Price, a recent graduate of Grant High School, has studied oboe for 8 years with Karen Wagner and previously with Dagny Rask Regan. Currently the Principal Oboist of the Portland Youth Philharmonic and a section oboist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA (VSO), Ben is a past winner of concerto competitions with the VSO, Metropolitan Youth Symphony (MYS), and Oregon Sinfonietta. Ben has performed as principal oboist with the MYSfits Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Academy and Pink Martini. A four-time participant in the Northwest Oboe Seminar, Ben is also the current Oregon State Solo & Ensemble Champion for oboe. Ben has been selected to the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America three times, and will study Oboe Performance with Katherine Needleman and Philippe Tondre at the Curtis Institute of Music beginning in fall 2022.
Hear Ben’s Episode of On Deck with Young Musicians from January 6th, 2018.