On Oct. 4, ETSU music faculty member Heather Killmeyer will perform her oboe recital, “Interactions: East Meets West.”
Killmeyer has been a member of the ETSU Music department since 2012 and teaches oboe and bassoon. Her own involvement with music started from a young age.
“I actually started on piano when I was like five years old, like a lot of people,” Killmeyer said. “I switched to oboe beginning of seventh grade, then I started playing bassoon beginning of ninth grade.”
Although she grew up outside of Baltimore, Killmeyer has traveled across the nation from states like Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada, California, Texas and ended in Tennessee. She said that this area allows her to “come up with creative new projects and ideas” for the “collection of different music traditions that we have here.”
“I think this area is really unique for that, and every once in a while, I get lucky to collaborate with people in Appalachian Studies in the Bluegrass program,” Killmeyer said. “I really like diverging into new areas because classical music cannot stay still.”
The October recital will be the first time Killmeyer has performed solo since a car accident last November. After a performance in Pennsylvania, a car rear-ended her vehicle and continued on without stopping. She could not play for several weeks.
“I did not realize when you play the oboe, even when you are using great posture, there is some muscle engagement,” Killmeyer said. “That brings up all kinds of emotional things in terms of not feeling as strong as you used to. I still, for a while, was replaying it as a loop for weeks over and over in my head.”
The program includes music from Eastern and Western composers, including Eugene Goossens, Makoto Shinohara, Antonio Pasculli and Jean Ahn.
“What I’m trying to do is present some more of what you would think of as a traditional or classical music, and then some things that kind of intentionally bring in elements from non-Western music traditions,” Killmeyer said.
One of the composers even reached out to Killmeyer personally.
“I got this email a couple months ago out of nowhere from a composer named Jeane Ahn,” Killmeyer said. “Dr. Ahn basically said, ‘Hey, I saw your name on the program from the Women in Song festival and here is a piece for solo oboe that I had written. It has never been performed on oboe in public before.’ Now I have two really different, contrasting pieces by Asian composers, and they contrast wonderfully with the Goossens as well.”
The recital begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Brown Hall auditorium. Admission is free with a suggested $5 donation for Reed Day 2020. She will be accompanied by fellow ETSU music faculty member Dr. Esther Park on piano. Killmeyer is excited to perform once again following the car accident.
“I feel like I have kind of turned a corner,” Killmeyer said. “I think I have found my fighting spirit again.”
