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The Woman Behind 'Mozart In The Jungle'

Oboist and Chapel Hill native Blair Tindall has played with some of the biggest names in classical music. She has performed on stage at Carnegie Hall and played in the orchestra pit for Broadway musicals like Les Miserables andMiss Saigon.

The woman behind "Mozart in the Jungle"

But she ended up playing the oboe completely by accident. In6th grade, students lined up in alphabetical order to choose their instrument. By the time Tindall chose,  the only options left were oboe and bassoon. She picked the oboe, and now, more than four decades later, her career as an oboist is the subject of the new Amazon Prime TV series “Mozart In The Jungle.”

The show is a spinoff of her 2005 memoir about her decades in classical music and the drama and politics behind the scenes.

Host Frank Stasio talks to musician and writer Blair Tindall about her path from North Carolina School of the Arts to Hollywood.

Preview the show here:

https://youtu.be/QixpBQcGAqc

Blair Tindall's career as an oboist is the subject of a new Amazon Prime TV series 'Mozart In The Jungle.' Here she is with Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.
Blair Tindall /
Blair Tindall's career as an oboist is the subject of a new Amazon Prime TV series 'Mozart In The Jungle.' Here she is with Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.
Outside the Lincoln Center the night of the premiere of 'Mozart In The Jungle.'
Blair Tindall /
Outside the Lincoln Center the night of the premiere of 'Mozart In The Jungle.'
A shot of the audience present for the premiere of 'Mozart In The Jungle' at the Alice Truly Hall in Lincoln Theater in December 2014.
Blair Tindall /
A shot of the audience present for the premiere of 'Mozart In The Jungle' at the Alice Truly Hall in Lincoln Theater in December 2014.

Copyright 2015 North Carolina Public Radio

Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.