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Impromptu - September 2008
photo by Kirsten Beckerman
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KATHERINE NEEDLEMAN has been an oboist for 20 years.
Since 2003 she has been the principal oboist for the BSO. At
1:13 p.m. on May 15, 2008, she landed a new job: Motherhood.
Her first child, Elizabeth Howard Mantel, is a smiling, cooing bundle
of happiness. She enjoys watching her parents make silly faces, looking
at trees and listening to music. “She really loves the book Brown Bear,
Brown Bear What Do You See?” says Needleman. “When we read it she
is just thrilled and breaks into huge smiles and makes happy noises.”
Needleman’s new daughter doesn’t awaken when her mother steals a
few moments during naptime to practice. And when Elizabeth plays the
piano, Izzy coos.
The first few weeks of motherhood weren’t easy. Izzy was colicky,
slept sporadically and was sometimes inconsolable. Needleman and her
husband Nicholas Mantel loved being parents and persevered. Their
patience was rewarded after about seven weeks. “She’s a pretty happy
baby now,” says Needleman. “She only cries when she is tired. We’ve
decided to keep her.”
One of Izzy’s favorite things is to be outside. “Within a minute of
going outside and looking at trees she’s pretty calm,” says Needleman,
who returned from maternity leave in September. “For the first few
weeks we were thinking of pitching a tent in the yard and just living
out there because we thought Izzy might sleep better outside since
she’s so much happier there.”
— Maria Blackburn
Read more about Katherine
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