Jennifer I. Paull
Musician and Author

Jennifer I. Paull discovered the world of Music at the hands of an enlightened and very patient piano teacher as a young child. The discovery of the oboe d'amore, whilst an oboe student at the Royal College of Music (London), changed both her life and that of this almost forgotten, beautiful instrument to which she subsequently dedicated her own. She remains the only soloist in the world ever to have devoted a career exclusively to its cause.

Although having performed with many of the leading orchestras in England and Europe as an oboe and cor anglais player as well as being an oboe d'amore specialist (BBC Symphony and Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic etc), the orchestral repertoire was neither where her heart beat the fastest, nor in which the instrument of her predilection was anything other than an occasional guest.

Music in all its guises as well as performance itself enabled her to explore her passion much more intensely. This extended from orchestral concerts and solo recitals to publishing new repertoire (for all members of the oboe family of instruments, especially the rarest of its members), music therapy and education, the organisation of concerts and festivals and working in artist and orchestral management. The fascination with the Comparative Arts' perspective of her subject led Jennifer Paull to writing.

"The lens through which I view my subject is one of a musician who delights in the juxtaposition and oneness of all of the Arts: their comparison to my own and the very lack of separation and division between."

Jennifer Paull's first book, Cathy Berberian and Music's Musings was published in 2007 by Amoris Imprint. Details can be found on the Books page of this site.

She has two sons and two daughters and lives in Switzerland near the French border in a charming, wine-growing village not far from Montreux. Fascinated by travel, history, and synaesthesia (her 'secret weapon'), she freely admits to an advanced addiction to The Arts in all their guises and intellectual sleuthing at its most intense. She is currently working on her next book, details of which will appear on the BOOKS page in due course.

Leon Goossens, the most celebrated, legendary British oboist of the XXth century, spoke of Jennifer Paull's decision to devote her career exclusively to an instrument considered as obsolete, in an interview with Melvin Harris:

"That lass has her head screwed on the right way. She's absolutely right to make the d'amore her main instrument. If you want to master the d'amore, you can't afford to be casual with it. It defies dabbling. I wouldn't relish the thought of having to play anything major on it at short notice. It can be a temperamental and tricky instrument until you learn how to humour it properly. It has to be coaxed, and nurtured, but the effort's well worth it when you draw that glorious voice from it.

Yes, she's right to concentrate on it as her first choice. I've heard some dreadful playing from people who thought they could just pick it up and breeze away. And there's a bonus of course. If you enchant people with the d'amore sound, then you'll be sure to attract composers eager to write for you. That's why she shows great wisdom by specialising. Good luck to her!"

The Melvin Harris Collection of Leon Goossens' complete recordings can be consulted in the 'Melvin Harris Collection' at the Music Library of the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.