Cory Barger knows exactly how hard making a career in music can
be. Despite spending the past few months diligently preparing for
her senior recital, her most nerve-wracking solo performance thus
far, she knows that things are only going to get more
difficult.
“It’s about as hard to make it into a top-level
orchestra as it is to play in the NBA,” she said.
For Barger and other graduating music and ethnomusicology
students, senior recitals represent the culmination of years of
work as well as what may be one last chance to shine onstage.
But Barger, a fourth-year bassoonist who is headed to the Royal
Conservatory of Music in London next fall, doesn’t plan on
stopping anytime soon.
“I really just can’t see myself doing anything
else,” she said.
It’s been this way for her since she started studying at
UCLA and began receiving the sort of musical education she needed
to really become passionate about her playing. Moving through a
variety of instruments before settling on the bassoon in high
school, Barger first became a music student simply because it
piqued her freshman interest more than anything else. From there,
the experience of studying with a serious faculty made all the
difference.
“As I got better, I started to enjoy myself more and care
more about playing, and so I’d continue improving,” she
said.
Her June 3 recital was a chance to show off four years of
training in public. Preparing months in advance and later ironing
out details with her piano accompanist, Barger strove for a balance
between traditional and contemporary works during her recital.
Barger is off to Europe to continue her studies because she
feels there is simply a stronger classical music scene there than
what she has experienced at home. For both job opportunities and
level of training, she is more inclined to pursue the art she has
become most passionate about on a continent more willing to listen
intently. Wherever she ends up, Barger’s ultimate goal is to
pursue an orchestral career.
Hitomi Oba, a fourth-year ethnomusicology student and tenor
saxophonist, represents a different kind of path. Deciding against
an East Coast conservatory education and a career consisting solely
of jazz performance, Oba came to UCLA to study jazz in the context
of the ethnomusicology program. This broader education presented
her with a way to change her musical perceptions, and experiencing
an environment full of students passionate about other subjects was
something she found inspiring. Although her undergraduate degree is
in jazz tenor saxophone performance, Oba will be returning to UCLA
next year to pursue a master’s degree in classical
composition.
“I’m doing classical composition because in the long
term I’d like to be a performer and a composer. I want to
make my own music, and I felt like this would be the next step in
making myself a better musician. Classical composition has been in
institutions for so long that it’s the best way to take
advantage of the university,” she said.
Her desire for this kind of holistic approach to learning music
has motivated her choices throughout her career at UCLA. Given the
freedom to take charge of her artistic direction by professors and
in ensembles, Oba has been able to develop her ability in composing
without being restricted by her degree. Her recital, which took
place on April 9, was made up solely of original music.
“Since recitals aren’t in a paying venue, and there
was no pressure from customers, I felt like I had the freedom to
play a program of my music,” she said.
Oba has come to realize that, as with her recital, an
educational setting provides unique opportunities for personal
development. From gigging with Japanese jazz musicians while
studying abroad to performing with her own group at the Fowler
Museum, she sees school as a fleeting opportunity to tune out the
demands placed on anyone in an artistic career and focus purely on
musical skills and expression.
“It went by really fast. I grew to appreciate being a
student in an institution when I realized how much we take for
granted,” said Oba. “It’s harder to excel after
graduating, since in school everything is done to better yourself.
Once you’re out there, it’s different.”