For John McDonough, his journey to becoming principal oboist of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) was not straightforward – and not exactly expected.
“I started out first as a clarinettist,” he recalls. “I went to the London College of Music to study the clarinet and, during my time there, I became more and more drawn to the sound of the oboe.”
“It was this particularly haunting sound that just made me sit up and really take notice of it… I kept thinking, what is that? Why is it affecting me like this?”
McDonough initially thought he was destined to become a peripatetic instrumental teacher, with London schools at that time requiring teachers to also be proficient in clarinet, saxophone, flute and oboe.
But this all changed when, after graduation, he started studying the oboe with a teacher from the Royal Opera House, who told him she could see a future for him playing in orchestras.
“That was the first time someone had really said that to me about the oboe… It sowed some seeds,” he said.
Fast-forward to today and McDonough as principal oboist leads the MPO woodwind section, performing regularly with the orchestra at home and overseas.
“I’m very grateful for this instrument; it brought me to the Mediterranean”
Asked how he found a seat in the orchestra, he explained that, like his journey into studying the oboe, it started almost by chance in 1995.
“It was like providence that brought me here; I hadn’t thought about coming to Malta,” he said.
At the time, he was still living in London, auditioning and freelancing with different ensembles. But, while completing his oboe postgraduate diploma, one particular exam changed the course of his life.
“The person adjudicating the exam, David Campbell, had been contacted that very morning to say they were looking for an oboist for the orchestra here [in Malta] … David asked me if I had recorded my exam, which I had, and he told me to send it off,” he said.
While McDonough’s application initially ran into some work permit roadblocks, these were soon resolved and, shortly after, he was heading to Malta.
“I’m very grateful for this instrument; it brought me to the Mediterranean.”
From ‘shoddy’ to 60 projects a year
The orchestra (then known as the Manoel Theatre Orchestra) McDonough walked into three decades ago was a very different organisation to the one today.
“When I first arrived, the level was really quite shoddy,” he said bluntly. “That was in the Manoel Theatre Orchestra days, before things had a big shake-up.”
“We had probably one project every two weeks then,” he said. “So, it was like two concerts a month, and we used to do a lot of work on one particular programme”. But no longer.
“Our proficiency has really increased, because we’ve got to get the work done faster,” he explained.
“There’s less rehearsal time, so if you can’t play the piece by the second or third rehearsal, then you haven’t studied it enough. If I’m playing a concert next week, then the week before, I’ll be preparing for that – at the same time as rehearsing other music”.
Developments
McDonough noted the standard of the orchestra started to rise after Malta joined the EU in 2004, with experienced players from countries such as Spain and Italy joining − a process he said had continued.
“Even the audition procedure is very different from when I joined; now it’s quite elite. You’ve got to leap through fire to get here – which is good, because every time you’re employing new people, the level is rising.”
He added that during his tenure, the MPO had also seen “fantastic” young players from its youth orchestra join the main ensemble.
And education is something McDonough seemed passionate about, explaining MPO plans to set up a junior youth orchestra targeting young musicians between the ages of nine and 16.
Asked how he envisaged the main orchestra developing, he said the MPO could “really do with our own [concert] hall”.
“At the moment, we’re a bit nomadic; we go between the Manoel Theatre, the Mediterranean Conference Centre, the Gozo theatres and outside concerts,” he said, stressing a dedicated hall could elevate the experience offered by the orchestra.
“If we could get funding, then I think we can really start to make a lot of progress… If the orchestra has a home with a good acoustic, we can be doing big works which call for massive orchestras but can be so exhilarating for the public to hear”.
Reeds and programming
Asked about a typical day in the orchestra, McDonough said he starts his day with meditation, before getting ready for morning rehearsals.
But before he can approach playing, he has to make sure he has a serviceable reed in his case – which for oboe players, unlike saxophonists and clarinettists, who can buy reeds from a shop, requires some work.
“As an oboist, we play an instrument that has a double reed,” he explains. “A double reed means it doesn’t have a mouthpiece tied to it – it is the sound-producing agent. And as professional musicians we’re expected to make our own”.
Making reeds is no simple feat, however, and “the life of a reed is very short-lived, possibly only two weeks or even a week. And they’re very expensive to make”.
With classical music seeking to attract new audiences worldwide, how does McDonough think orchestras should approach appealing to new listeners?
“You have to programme pieces that people don’t know they’re going to like.”
Read James Cummings’ series on the MPO here.