Muscle-Control Disorder Ends Oboe Career

Oboist Alex Klein is retiring from the Chicago Symphony because of a muscle-control disorder. “I just couldn’t understand why my fingers were not going the way I wanted. So I practiced harder, which only made it worse. I acquired a lot of secondary problems, including muscle tension. The more I played, the more my fingers would curl away from the oboe and the more effort I’d have to make to straighten them.”