Making Oboe Reeds with Albrecht Mayer

Solo-Oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic

Albrecht Mayer, born in Erlangen, Germany, has been principal oboe of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 1992 and appears regularly throughout the world as a concerto soloist and chamber musician. His chamber-music partners include Hélène Grimaud, Leif Ove Andsnes and Thomas Quasthoff. He was awarded the ECHO-Klassik prize as Instrumentalist of the Year (2004, 2010) and in the category Music DVD Recording of the Year (2008). In pursuit of his personal sound ideal, Albrecht Mayer founded his own ensemble, New Seasons. His teachers were Gerhard Scheuer, Georg Meerwein, Maurice Bourgue and Ingo Goritzki.

The oboist is also involved in charitable work: in October 2011, he founded the Albrecht Mayer Foundation, which supports research and therapy development for retinal and optic nerve diseases.

A proper pregouge makes life easier when it comes to preparing the cane. Watch as Albrecht Mayer walks us through the process.

Albrecht Mayer uses the Passin model gouging machine with an 11 mm cane bed. Here he shows us how to choose the best portion of the cane to set himself up for success, then gouge the cane to the ideal thickness.

After gouging comes one of the most important steps in sorting the cane: Hardness Testing. Find out how Albrecht Mayer does it, and what measurements he looks for in a good piece of cane.

Have you ever used a straight shaper? Albrecht Mayer has helped design a shaper that meets his exacting demands, including adding precise, symmetrical ears to the shape.

Finally the crucial moment arrives. Using the profiling machine, Albrecht Mayer is able to scrape the reed to nearly-finished dimensions. This scrape is refined by hand according to the needs and weather of the day, but listen to how good it sounds fresh off the machine!

2026年07月15日

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