My soon to be 16 year daughter has been playing the Oboe since 7th grade. She will be going to the 10th grade next year. She has been playing a Cabart 74 for the past 3 years and has done very well. I would like for her to have a chance to place in several regional, district, and state level competition in hopes of securing some scholarships for college. Is now a good time to consider purchasing a Loree' full conservatory?

Thanks for your input!

I hope your daughter has an oboe teacher who can help her choose an instrument. There are a lot of Lorees out there and they are not all created equal if you know what I mean. You wil spend a lot of money on an oboe - make sure it is a good one by having an expert try it.

The new professional model Yamahas are also a good option (and quite a bit cheaper, since they're not made in France). I would suggest the 831 instead of the 841, though. I've heard that the high A is hissy on the 841, and I know it's not a problem on the 831.

Thanks for the good advice. We are working to secure another private teacher, 1st one moved away.

I will ask the new teacher to help select the new oboe. I don't want to purchase more than one! I want an Oboe that will take her thru college, so I am looking at 7-8 years on a new oboe. I hope that is attainable?

Thanks again!

7-8 years is of course "obtainable" for an oboe. They will last many years. Buying a good professional model is not only the best way to go but is also a good investment. But new instruments are not always the best. I always prefer good used ones for my students because they are broken in and are unlikely to change in any way. A good source is oboes.us. Also ask any local oboists. They often will know of instruments for sale. And never buy one without having a professional assess it and give advice about whether it is a good one, and suitable for the student who will use it.

Thanks for the help! I will try to locate a nice, gently used professional oboe.

Cabart is a decent student brand instrument. It wouldn't hurt to start looking at a Loree instrument. The price on a new Loree is not going to do anything but go up for a while. The value of the dollar vs the euro is getting farther apart. When I bought my oboe a patricola Evoluzione three years ago it was about $4,500. Now my instrument is now pushing $6,000. I would definitely look into it seriously as it sounds like she will be doing more with the oboe in the future, whether she majors in music in college or not.

The majority of colleges will have an oboe and some even an English Horn on hand. It is not necessary, especially at the 10th grade level, to purchase a new, full conservatory anything, especially of high cost when your daughter has only just completed her first year of high school.

Unless it is not working well, the Cabart 74 should be a fine instrument for her to use until she is in college and her applied teacher tells her that it is necessary.

I've been playing on the same crappy student oboe (with no Bb key) since fourth grade, and still manage to get a very nice sound out of it. It is really not the instrument, but the reed and the player that make the difference in sound quality. A good player can sound good on a bad instrument, but a bad player will fail even on the highest quality instrument.

with no Bb key

what u said is so true, but it is nice to have the extra keys.

yeah the extra keys do help, and also a higher quality oboe would still sound slightly better than a cheap student one. Especially if it was made of wood, because I used to have a cheap Selmer student plastic oboe and then I got an intermediate Yamaha wood one and I could instantly tell it sounded better.

I agree. Going from a beginner Yamaha to a used Loree was so good! It was such a nice switch, the only hard thing is covering the open holes. I could automaticly tell the difference in sound, in feel, and in volume.