GREELEY, Colo. (KDVR) — A faculty member at the University of Northern Colorado is still reeling after celebrating a win on the Grammy stage on Sunday.
Tim Gocklin, an oboe adjunct faculty member and artist in residence at UNC, said his love of music began in fifth grade when he played the clarinet. But that changed when his mom took him to a band concert.
“They featured an oboe player,” Gocklin said. “After the band concert, my mom told me that the oboe was her favorite instrument.”
From then on, the rest was history.
“I just fell in love with the feeling. The more I listened to it, the more I learned about it. I just fell in love with that,” Gocklin said.
Then, once he got to college, he started the Akropolis Reed Quintet with his friends at the University of Michigan.
“All of our skillsets just really gelled together, our personalities really gelled together and we really just wanted to create something new and special,” Gocklin said.
They worked together on a project, which culminated in their song ‘Strands’, which ultimately was nominated for a Grammy. The song, with Gocklin on oboe, came from their latest album, “Are We Dreaming the Same Dream.”
After recording their latest album with drummer Christian Euman and composer Pascal Le Boeuf in 2020, and then completing it in 2022, Le Boeuf’s work on the song won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition.
Other members of the quintet include Kari Landry on the clarinet, Matt Landry on the saxophone, Ryan Reynolds on the bassoon and Andrew Koeppe on the bass clarinet.
“The music is so electric,” Gocklin said. “The day that we were nominated… [we] all decided, ‘Hey you know, even though we’re up against Béla Fleck and Chick Correa and André 3000, let’s go to the Grammy’s anyway and see what happens.'”
They all went to the 67th Grammy’s just for fun, not expecting much. Gocklin said he was recording on his phone to show the names being presented when he heard their song called out by Wayne Brady.
“Just kind of reliving it a little bit is sending some tingles going on in my cheeks, but it was so overwhelming in that moment and just so many different emotions of gratitude and of just joy and just shock and surprise.”
Now, they are going to continue creating music, and Gocklin said he hopes to inspire his students to pursue their passions.
