Watch The Master John Mack Make An Oboe Reed
📷
John Mack was one of the greatest oboists of the 20th century. For 36 years — from 1965 to 2001 — he served as Principal Oboist of the Cleveland Orchestra, widely considered one of the finest orchestral oboe positions in the world. He was a direct student of Marcel Tabuteau at the Curtis Institute of Music, and carried the Philadelphia tradition forward through his own playing and teaching for five decades.
This video is rare. Filmed in 2001 at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival — one of Mack's final public appearances before his retirement — it shows him making an oboe reed from start to finish. You are watching 50 years of accumulated knowledge compressed into a single sitting at the reed desk.
Why This Video Matters
Most oboists never get to watch a player of this caliber make a reed. Reed making has always been passed down in private lessons, behind closed doors, teacher to student. That's how Tabuteau taught Mack. That's how Mack taught his students at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Interlochen Arts Academy.
What you'll notice watching Mack work:
His knife moves slowly and deliberately. There is no guessing. Every stroke has a purpose. He checks the crow constantly, not occasionally, but after nearly every adjustment. He holds the reed to the light repeatedly, reading the cane the way a doctor reads an X-ray.
This is what 50 years of experience looks like. Not speed. Not shortcuts. Systematic, methodical, purposeful work.
John Mack and the Tabuteau Tradition
John Mack studied with Marcel Tabuteau at the Curtis Institute of Music in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the final years of Tabuteau's tenure there. He absorbed not just the technical elements of the American long scrape method but Tabuteau's entire philosophy of sound production, phrasing, and musical thinking.
Mack's reeds were legendary among orchestral oboists. He was known for producing reeds with exceptional stability, a dark centered core tone, and consistent response across all registers, the hallmarks of the American long scrape tradition at its highest level.
His students have gone on to hold positions in orchestras across the United States, continuing the lineage that runs directly from Tabuteau through Mack to the present generation of American oboists.
What You Can Learn From This Video
Watch this video more than once. The first time, just observe. The second time, focus specifically on:
How he holds the reed while scraping, the angle, the pressure, the grip. How frequently he tests the crow between scrapes. How he uses light to read the cane thickness. The economy of his movements, nothing wasted, nothing random.
Then watch it a third time after you've spent time at your own reed desk. You'll see things you missed the first two times.
This is how the masters learned, by watching, absorbing, and then practicing with intention.
About Joseph Shalita and makingoboereeds.com
Joseph Shalita has studied and performed in the American long scrape tradition for over 35 years as Principal Oboist of the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra. His online course at makingoboereeds.com teaches the same systematic, principled approach to reed making you see demonstrated in this video, step by step, with detailed video instruction and over 56 lessons covering every stage of the process.
