So it's time for a new mouthpiece (that would be anytime, right?) and lucky for me I was able to try some of the latest Eddie Daniels mouthpieces. For me the most important thing is how the mouthpiece FEELS while you're playing. I've played on many mouthpieces that sounded pretty good but seemed to fight me a bit or were too touchy with reeds. All of these new mouthpieces felt great, and after choosing a couple I was anxious to give them a try in a symphony rehearsal and performance.

That night I decided to play the mouthpieces in a Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque concert. We were doing the Dvorak Serenade and the Deems Taylor "Through the Looking Glass." Ordinarily I wouldn't risk trying a new mouthpiece on a concert without rehearsing with it first, but I was so overwhelmed with the ease and sound of the Eddie Daniels, I just went for it! The best part was that I was so at ease. Everything felt so nice that I completely forgot about the mouthpiece and enjoyed performing more than ever. Soft attacks up high weren't even an issue, and the slow solo in the opening of the Taylor just seemed to soar out of my clarinet. I loved it!

Later that week, I was thinking that this mouthpiece is too good to be true. Maybe I've just lucked out with a great batch of reeds? So, on to rehearsing and performing the Dvorak New World Symphony with the Santa Fe Symphony (SFS). Our principal bassoonist (formerly with the New Orleans and Minnesota Symphonies) noticed the new sound immediately and was blown away with the ease of it and also the bigger sound, especially in the lower range. The octave clarinet duet in the Scherzo of the Dvorak was a breeze, as was the triple high B at the end of the "Unanswered Question" by Charles Ives.
This past week, I tried the mouthpiece on another big solo, the cadenza from the Tchaikovsky "Mozartiana." Our principal oboist commented after the concert that she loved the sound, and asked what I was doing differently. To me that was the ultimate test: she had no idea that I was even trying a new mouthpiece!

The same weekend we were performing the "Rhapsody in Blue" with the New Mexico Symphony and I was asked to play a little jazz solo with the pianist and cadenza into the glissando. Originally I had planned on using a different mouthpiece for this concert, but the "Mozartiana" that weekend was so much fun that I went ahead and played with the Eddie Daniels. Yikes! The glissando practically played itself and I was able to get so many different colors on the solo I almost felt like a jazzer.

For me, the main benefit of good equipment is that you forget about the equipment and enjoy the music. How many times have I settled with an OK reed, knowing that I probably sounded fine, but that I could have had so much more fun if things felt better? I've been playing and performing 3 weeks now on the Eddie Daniels mouthpiece and I'm not worried about finding a reed! I know that several of my reeds will play great and that with minimal work I'll have a couple of gems. Here in the high-altitude climate of the New Mexico desert, this is NOT the usual case, so I'm elated!

Lori Lovato, clarinetist
New Mexico Symphony Orchestra
Santa Fe Symphony
Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque
New Mexico Woodwind Quintet