Music for the Soul: The Success of Sarah Loos
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Reeds are a very personal matter for oboists. Some prefer the darker, richer tone of those carved in the American method. Others prefer the brighter, nasal sound of the European-carved reeds.
Sarah Loos finds merit in both sounds, but finds reed carving difficult. She is still working on it.
"It's very hard. I call it creating your soul," she said. "Your soul probably gives you less trouble."
Well if idle hands are the devil's work. Loos should have no trouble. She is rarely still.
Summer vacation is a time for students to kick back and enjoy the weather by the pool, take a break from studies and maybe work a part-time job. For Sarah Loos, daughter of Larry and Paulet Loos of Pinckneyville, summer is almost as busy as the rest of the year.
She just wrapped up the "Mikado" at the Sesser Opera House and took time for a quick interview before giving a mallet percussion lesson at the high school in Pinckneyville.
"I'm a freelancer," she said. "I play gigs whenever I'm asked."
She has played for weddings, funerals, and at the National Honor Society inauguration.
In addition to the oboe, Loos plays the piano and mallet percussion instruments such as xylophone and marimba bells.
"I'd like to learn the English horn next," she said.
Loos was able to work in the "Mikado" and a band clinic at the University of Evansville in Indiana in May.
As for June, Loos leaves Friday for a seminar at the University of Illinois for HOBY award winners. Each year schools select a sophomore student to represent the district. HOBY award winners attend the seminar then complete a required number of hours of community service. Loos will represent Pinckneyville Community High School.
Sunday she joins her fellow PCHS Marching Panthers on the trip to Disney World in Florida.
As soon as she returns from Florida, Loos prepares to take a week-long Master Class for oboe players in Carmel Valley California. The class will be taught by the oboe professor from Juliard, Elaine Douglas.
Loos was accepted into the Master Class as a performer, not just an auditor. That means she will be learning from Douglas and other oboe players will be learning from her.
Normally, an audition tape is submitted along with the application to the Master Class. But for Loos that was not necessary. She was admitted based on the letters of recommendation from two of her music teachers- Stephen Cannedy at Pinckneyville Community High School and Ed Benyas at SIU-C.
"Sarah is extremely enthusiastic and very hardworking," said Dr. Ed Benyas, Oboe Professor at SIUC. "Sarah is very dedicated to oboe. Not lot of high school students have that kind of commitment to oboe. It's a very difficult instrument to learn."
Loos said she began playing oboe in fifth grade beginning band. "When I got there, they didn't have an oboe so I tried a few instruments and chose the trumpet. Mr. Cannedy said that the oboe sounds kind of like snake charming instruments and I love snakes."
She tried it and has not put it down since. Her first oboe was a beginning model she named Heinz Holliger after a famous oboist. She has since moved on to a professional model she named Amadeus.
Loos is the principal oboist for the Southern Illinois Civic Symphony and assistant principal oboist for both the Southern Illinois Wind Ensemble and the SI Symphony which is conducted by Dr. Benyas.
She also plays in the PCHS Marching Band, concert band, pep band, jazz band and Music Makers pit orchestra.
"Sarah is a very unique student, always in a positive frame of mind," said PCHS Band Director Stephen Cannedy. "She is excited about everything- loves to come to practice, loves performing and she's one a kind."
"There's one story I always tell about Sarah." Cannedy said. "During first hour band class there are 120 kids in the room. They have to be quiet for announcements. The first thing they tell you is what's for lunch- today is turkey on bun."
"You hear Sarah say "yes!" and she's sincere," he added. "She brings that level of enthusiasm to everything she does."
Not surprisingly, Loos hopes to attend a music school such as Juliard in New York City or Curtis in Philadelphia. What may come a as a surprise is that she still loves snakes and other animals and hopes to also become a veterinarian.
"It's a good fallback plan," she said.
She is also considering Interlocken musical boarding school in Michigan. She will visit this summer and hopes to attend an eight-week camp there next summer. As part of that camp, she will audition for the World Youth Symphony Orchestra.
The WYSO has the same requirements as Juliard.
Also this summer, Loos will attend the International Double Reed Society gathering in Oklahoma. "It's great. they have everything there- concerts, reeds, exhibits, stands," she said. "They even have yoga for oboists."
The level of activity would exhaust most people, but seems par for the course with Loos. In addition to music, she rides horses and is a member of the PCHS Cross Country team and the Pinckneyville Dolphins Swim Team.
"She also has chores at home," said her mother. "She gets those done, too."
Paulet Loos said that some days she would pick Sarah up on the road where she was running with the track team. They would zip down to Carbondale for symphony, wind ensemble or civic orchestra. When they got home, Sarah would pick up the run where she left off and finish it.
As for the icing on the cake, Loos is also the top student in her class at PCHS, consistently making straight A's.