Keeping It In The Family: Meet The CBSO Clarinettist

Acclaimed musician Oliver Janes will be appearing with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) when it launches this year’s Harrogate Music Festival with a concert at the Royal Hall on 8 June. Oliver studied at the Royal Academy of Music and is now CBSO’s Section Leader Clarinet. He tells us about his musical journey…

CBSO is launching this year’s Harrogate Music Festival. What can you tell us about the programme?

The concert starts with a Caroline Shaw piece that’s great for strings. Then a Carl Maria von Weber’s Concerto which is one of his best known ones. There’s a lot of fun in the music, it’s quite operatic and great for the clarinet. Then in the second half we’re doing Sibelius 2, which is one of his most popular symphonies and full of great music. It really packs a punch.

Have you performed in Harrogate before?

I’ve been there with the John Wilson Orchestra on a couple of occasions. It was at the Royal Hall, which is a stunning venue. I seem to remember we even had a reception there, and it was great in between rehearsals and the performance going up to the park .

What first got you interested in music?

My parents were both violinists in the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester but they didn’t push me. There was an amazing music teacher at my primary school and she inspired me. I started playing the violin and really enjoyed playing in youth orchestras and school orchestras. I liked feeling like I was part of a team and making friends through music, but me and the violin didn’t click.

You swapped the violin for the clarinet when you were 15. How did that come about?

I stopped playing the violin because I wasn’t putting enough practice in and then my grandad who was a clarinettist said, ‘why don’t you try the clarinet?’ So I did and just fell in love with it. He used to be Principal Clarinet at CBSO way before I was born and then he was Principal Clarinet at Liverpool Philharmonic so he lived quite close to where I grew up in Manchester.

How did your grandfather help you?

My grandfather dedicated his life to me learning the clarinet. He taught me every single day and I think he loved it as much as I did. There’s also that generational difference – you can’t really argue with your grandparents but you can with your parents. We just got on really well. He would find all my reeds so I could feel as though the clarinet was easy, even though reeds are the most frustrating and complicated thing to get right. So he did all the hard work for me in those days.

What drew you to classical music rather than pop, rock or jazz?

I love the thrill of the big shapes and climaxes that classical music can do. A Bruckner symphony might take half an hour to get there but it’s so worth it when it does. It’s the thrill of live music where you feel overwhelmed by all the colours and emotions that an orchestra creates. I do love jazz music but I don’t get quite the same overwhelming sensation as I do when I listen to an orchestra. It’s the variety and differences that exist that I really love.

Who are your favourite composers?

I love Strauss, particularly his tone poems like An Alpine Symphony and Heldenleben, where it really depicts a story. I also love Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, they did great tunes. I like the big orchestral stuff.

You joined CBSO in 2014. What have been some of your highlights from the last 10 years?

I did a bit of freelancing in my last two years at the Royal Academy of Music and I graduated in July that year and started at CBSO after the summer holidays, and I’m forever grateful for that opportunity. I think you learn so much from going into an orchestra. You learn from all the other musicians, stuff you can’t really learn in a practice room. It’s been a whirlwind 10 years. I love working with the different music directors we’ve had. I was very lucky to have the last year of Andris Nelson as music director before he went to Boston. We did amazing tours and programmes. I loved Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla’s time when we discovered lots of Weinberg’s music which had been unknown to most of us. Now with our new director Kazuki Yamada we’ve toured Japan and every concert with him is just electric. Each of them has offered something unique. In terms of venues, we played at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2022 which was amazing, and toured to Japan and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. You hear about these halls as a student so to actually go and play in them is amazing.

Is classical music relevant to modern audiences, does it still matter?

Nothing can transport you somewhere quite like live music. It’s great listening to music on your headphones at home but actually experiencing it and feeling the floor vibrate when the orchestra’s really going, nothing can recreate that. Classical music is everywhere in our lives and it enhances film soundtracks and video games, it creates the atmosphere so that you can then let yourself go into these different worlds. I wish it was more accessible to schools. I vividly remember my primary school music teacher and how inspirational she was. It was normal to learn an instrument and I wish that was still the case now. For me, it’s about exposure. Once you’ve been to see a concert that’s it – there’s normally something for everyone in every concert. Also what I’ve loved about CBSO is it’s a real family. I love how the orchestra is full of people of all ages. When I joined I was only 23 and had so much to learn, and people who were about to retire were so helpful. I wonder if that can help with accessibility by allowing people to meet the players so they realise they are just normal people who do the same things as everyone else.

What are you looking forward to most about returning to Harrogate?

It’s a beautiful hall with a really nice acoustic, especially for wind instruments, and I’m looking forward to the warm buzz around the Festival that I remember from when I’ve been before.