BY LUCY RASH AND STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Oboist Ben Opie’s talents extend across the entire repertoire for the instrument. His passion for contemporary music has led him to work with ensembles such as the Arcko Symphonic Ensemble, Ensemble Parallelle, Magik*Magik Orchestra, the Argonauts Ensemble and co-directing Inventi Ensemble with Melissa Doecke. With the latter, Ben is set to be part of the ensemble’s debut album release which has so far raised more than $4000 on Pozible. The campaign ends on Tuesday, and you can help Inventi reach its goal here.
Ben has tutored students from the AYO Young Symphonists program, Melbourne Youth Music, the Australian National University and was the oboe specialist for Graham Abbott’s ABC Classic FM Keys to Music broadcast. The orchestral musician has won awards across the globe such as the Phyllis C Wattis Foundation Scholarship (USA), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music award for new music (USA), the 42nd International Summer Course for New Music Scholarship, Darmstadt (GERMANY) and the Carmel Music Competition Finalist (USA).
Of all his experiences so far, Ben sites one with Inventi Ensemble as his most memorable: “Playing Bach out the back of a 3-tonne truck in a Melbourne alley with my ensemble Inventi Ensemble was pretty crazy, especially when we ended up competing with a DJ blasting out their own tunes,” Ben says. “Memorable performances always end up being the ones that have me a bit out of my comfort zone, funnily enough, they’re the ones that are often the most musically satisfying too.”
Even the most experienced of musicians can get a little stage fright, though for Ben it comes without instrument in hand. “There is a constant stream of moments that I think I could have done better, especially in concerts. Usually, it’s when I’m talking with the audience and trying to describe something and get tongue-tied and end up talking to an audience about how much I’m sweating or I try to crack a joke and a lone tumbleweed rolls by in the silence.
“I just want to do the music justice, so my biggest fear is that I won’t achieve my expectations of a performance.”
For the past year, Inventi Ensemble has run music workshops in immigration detention centres and Ben says watching the ways his music can affect people is “pretty amazing”.
“I’m also proud of changing minds through my playing. I get a real thrill when people approach me after concerts and say things like ‘you’ve changed my mind about the oboe/ new music/ music’. I’m also passionate about having new works written for the oboe and am proud of the works that have been written for me so far.”
“I just want to keep sharing music and creating new music and bringing music to people that otherwise don’t have access to it.”
Support Ben Opie and the Inventi Ensemble with their debut album when you donate to their Pozible campaign here: http://www.pozible.com/project/199661.
Image supplied.
