Mev Berman; the best oboe player in Canada
Hyfler/Rosner
Canadian Opera Company veteran 'was the best oboe player in
Canada'
Told by his school music teacher that it was the oboe or
nothing, he developed a deep affinity for the instrument and
was in demand by orchestras all over North America
F.F. LANGAN
Special to The Globe and Mail
May 26, 2008
Mev Berman was a master of the oboe. From the age of about
15 he played the oboe in symphony orchestras in the United
States and Canada, and was the principal oboist for the
Canadian Opera Company for more than two decades.
He taught at university and music conservatories, organized
chamber music ensembles and made recordings of both
classical and popular music. One of his last was The Best of
Gershwin's Love Songs with the Avalon Strings.
"He was the best oboe player in Canada, and probably in
North America," says Lesley Young, a former student who is
now an oboist with the COC and the co-producer of the
Gershwin CD and many other of Mr. Berman's recordings.
The oboe is an important instrument in a symphony orchestra.
Among other things, the rest of orchestra tunes their
instruments from the A note produced by the oboe. Often
mistaken in appearance for the clarinet, the oboe is
slightly smaller and has a double reed in the mouthpiece
rather than a single reed.
Mev Berman started his musical life playing the clarinet in
high school. It was thought to be a cooler instrument than
the oboe because it was played in so many of the big bands
of the era. "My older brother played the clarinet and he
also introduced me to the saxophone," he once wrote. But the
teacher in charge of the school band said there were too
many clarinet players so he was offered the oboe or nothing.
"That's how I became an oboist. I've never looked back."
Born in Hartford, Conn., his parents named him Melvin. He
acquired the nickname Mev from boyhood friends. His father
worked at a low-level job and couldn't afford music lessons,
so they were paid for by an uncle. Soon, young Mev became so
accomplished that he won a scholarship to the Hartt School
of Music at the University of Hartford.
During the Second World War, he interrupted his studies to
enlist in the U.S. Navy. He served on USS Prairie, a
14,500-tonne floating workshop and "mother ship" to a fleet
of destroyers in the Pacific. A large vessel with a crew
complement of 1,700, it even had its own band. Mr. Berman
played the saxophone.
After the war he returned to studying classical music and
the oboe but made money on the side by playing the saxophone
in dance bands. After he graduated he played in smaller
symphony orchestras in Hartford and New Orleans, as well as
for a ballet company in New York.
After that, he joined the Boston Pops Orchestra where he
became friends with its famous conductor. "He was very close
to Arthur Fiedler and he wrote an article on him when he
died in 1979," said his daughter Suzanne Berman.
In 1957, Mr. Berman moved to Montreal as principal oboist in
the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He stayed in Canada for the
rest of his life. The first music director he worked under
in Montreal was Zubin Mehta. One night, after a difficult
concert, Mr. Mehta called him at two o'clock in the morning
to ask: "Where did I go wrong?"
Years later, Mr. Berman said the call showed not insecurity,
but a drive for perfection. "One of the things that makes
the difference between a great conductor and a mediocre
conductor, is his willingness to learn, and to let musicians
help him."
Zubin Mehta and Arthur Fiedler were just two of the
superstar conductors Mr. Berman worked with over the years.
Some of the others included George Solti, Sir Thomas
Beecham, Franz-Paul Decker, Charles Munch and Pierre
Monteux.
As he did everywhere he lived, Mr. Berman became involved in
many aspects of musical life in Montreal. He taught
part-time at McGill University's faculty of music and played
in the Baroque Trio of Montreal. He was also professor of
oboe and chamber music at the Conservatoire de Musique de
Quebec.
His experiences as a teacher in Quebec taught him it was
important for French-speaking musicians to learn their craft
in North America, not Europe. "Before the early 60s most of
the Quebec students would study at the Paris Conservatoire
for four years and return as French-style players to find
they were not acceptable in North America," he once told an
interviewer. "You can't play French-style oboe and expect to
get a job in a North American orchestra, whether Canadian or
American."
In 1972, he decided to move to Toronto. For one thing, the
University of Toronto offered him a full-time position. He
also became the principal oboist for the Canadian Opera
Company and continued to play in its orchestra until 2004.
In Toronto, Mr. Berman became the busiest man in the oboe
business. Over the years, he recorded 20 albums of his own,
travelled abroad to perform and played in several woodwind
ensembles as well as a long stint in the National Ballet
Orchestra. He also helped start Toronto's Mainly Mozart
Festival, which was patterned after a similar event in New
York.
"He was very versatile, whether it was chamber music, pop,
contemporary or classical," said Ms. Young, who added that
he never allowed conductors to intimidate him. "He was never
afraid to speak up. I remember once in an opera rehearsal we
had an Italian conductor who was swearing and abusing
people. After a while, Mev stood up and told him you can't
do that here."
Another conductor liked to leave notes telling musicians how
they should improve. Mr. Berman would leave the conductor
notes on how to better his performance.
"No other musician would do that," Ms. Young said.
"Conductors loved him not just because of the beautiful
sound on the oboe, but because of his openness and honesty."
Mr. Berman seldom rested between engagements. "He played
every day," said Ms. Berman. "Whether it was for the opera,
as a soloist for his woodwind quintet - the Toronto Winds -
or playing jingles for ads, my father was always working."
Over the years he performed on the soundtrack of more than
300 feature films, and also recorded two of his own works -
The Oboe and The Oboe Reed. Short and instructive, they were
devoted to a complex subject about which he was thoroughly
familiar. The key to the sound of the oboe is the quality of
the double reed in its mouthpiece. The reed has to fit the
mouth - technically the embouchure - of the individual
player and one size does not fit all. Cheaper oboes use
plastic reeds but Mr. Berman felt they didn't work. He made
his own.
"Every professional oboist must spend hours and hours of
work making his or her own reeds," he once told a reporter.
"All my students have to learn to make their own reeds."
Half of his studio at the University of Toronto was taken up
with complex reed-making equipment. After he retired, he
lived in one apartment and rented a second where he worked
on his recordings and reeds.
"My father loved his life as a musician and used to say that
he never really considered it work," said Ms. Berman.
MEV BERMAN
Melvin Berman was born in Hartford, Connecticut on Feb. 28,
1927. He died in Toronto of heart disease on April 2, 2008.
He was 81. He is survived by his wife, Audrey, his daughter
Suzanne and son Robert.