Two Pieces - SOLO OB

Two Pieces
for unaccompanied oboe
by Ben Hoadley

This work was commissioned by oboists Camille Wells and Shaiq Ahmad Noori through the Teach to Learn programme, where musicians from different world regions are paired to exchange ideas about music and social issues, and to create a project.

Ben Hoadley writes: "I am constantly astonished at the small degree of separation of the global music community and its ability to bring people together.  I travelled from New Zealand to study for four years at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Camille also studied there soon after, but we didn't meet until later, when she arrived in NZ to join the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. And now we're working together with a musician in Afghanistan!"

The Invocation incorporates the song Degar Bar Namegardam by Ahmad Wali and can be understood as a call across the land to the ocean, and back again. Wali references the beach in his song, and the piece was written by the sea in Auckland.