Anyone who knows Tucson Symphony Orchestra oboist Lindabeth Binkley knows this about her:
"I don't run unless someone is chasing me or I have to chase after somebody."
So it's a curious sight to see Binkley running — yes, running — around her Tucson neighborhood with her "international dog of mystery," Corrie, in tow.
"I don't know if I will become a marathoner, but it has been good for me and it has helped me to play this piece," she explained last week as rehearsals got under way in earnest for her concerto turn with Strauss' Concerto in D major for Oboe and Small Orchestra.
She will need the stamina. The Strauss is a marathon unto itself for the oboist. For 27 minutes, the player takes on the dual role of soloist and integral part of the orchestra, with no breaks and no breathers.
People are also reading…
"There are four movements that go attacca and the oboe plays all the time," said guest conductor Bruce Chamberlain. "It is a huge marathon event for an oboist, and it's just a fabulous piece."
Binkley, who has been with the TSO for 11 years, will perform the Strauss four times by the end of this weekend. Her first was in Green Valley on Thursday and she plays it at Canyon del Oro High School in Oro Valley tonight and at Catalina Foothills High School on Saturday and Sunday.
"When you do this piece, you train to do it physically and mentally," Binkley explained, interrupting herself with girlish giggles that are central to her bubbly personality. "So I've taken up running to build up my cardio to do it. I'm studying tai chi to keep focus."
Binkley has been toying with the Strauss since her undergraduate days at Central Michigan University. Every summer, through graduate school at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she earned a master's degree, and at the University of Arizona, where she earned her doctorate, she would pull it out and tackle it with all her might. And at the end of every summer, it would defeat her, she said.
"I could never do it," explained Binkley, who spends her summers running the popular St. Andrew's Bach Society concert series as its artistic director. "I always felt so unworthy of it."
When she got to the UA, she made up her mind that she would master the Strauss and set about studying the piece as the central theme of her doctoral dissertation.
Strauss wrote the Oboe Concerto in 1945 at the suggestion of American GI John de Lancie, who in civilian life had been an oboist with the Pittsburgh Orchestra. De Lancie, who went on to be principal oboist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, did not play the piece until after he retired some 30 years later, and when he did, he tweaked it to make it more accessible to oboists, Binkley said.
Binkley said she tapped de Lancie for her doctoral lecture recital and performed his modified version of the piece. He died not long after she earned her doctorate in 2002.
For this weekend's performances, Binkley is returning to Strauss' original literature.
"I want to know how it feels to do the full version," she said, then giggled nervously. "It is very different."
"It takes a virtuoso player," Chamberlain added, noting that it is not played very often because of the skills it requires of the player. "Most orchestras are not blessed with the skills that Lindabeth has, so we in Tucson are blessed to have her here."
"It's a dream for me to play the Strauss. It's a big piece; it's the equivalent of running the oboe marathon," Binkley said.
"I'm excited to do it. It's about the playing. It's such a gorgeous piece," she added. "The orchestra writing is so lush. The melodies are so vocal. That's why I fell in love with it. . . . I get to make beautiful music with the orchestra."
If you go
Tucson Symphony Orchestra MasterWorks concert
• Featuring: Principal oboist Lindabeth Binkley and guest conductor Bruce Chamberlain.
• When and where: 8 p.m. today at Canyon del Oro High School Fine Arts Auditorium, 25. W. Calle Concordia, Oro Valley (part of Greater Oro Valley Arts Council series); 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive.
• Tickets: $30 to $40 through www.tucsonsymphony.org; Oro Valley tickets available at www.govac.org.
• Program: Rossini's Overture to "The Barber of Seville." Strauss' Concerto in D major for Oboe and Small Orchestra. Mozart's Symphony 36 ("Linz").
