Richmond Flute Fair - November 20, 2010

The Richmond Flute Fair is held at Virginia Commonwealth University, organized by university staff and local musicians.  This year's event was November 20, 2010 and featured Aaron Goldman as the guest artist.  The community response was excellent; the Richmond Symphony's flute section was present in either judge, clinician, or performing capacity.  Dr. Tabatha Easley & Susan Farmer were the event coordinators and really put together a great program.  We held clinics on yoga's relation to flute playing (Ariella Perlman), piccolo playing (Ann Choomack, Richmond Symphony Orchestra piccoloist), and auditioning and sight reading (Kate Watts).

The final concert consisted of clinicians or coordinators performing solo pieces.  Elizabeth Brightbill (Terra Voce) performed a classic Katherine Hoover piece titled "Winter Spirits", bending pitches and blowing through passages reminiscent of swirling wind, ethereal voices, and stark landscapes.  Mom & I performed Gary Schocker's "Soliloquy", which I always considered to be a simple but pretty piece, starting with a sliding, lazy figure and progressing into a dynamic thematic development.  Ariella played an awesome piece for flute & audio tape by Elizabeth Brown.  I love pieces like this because they offer a wide range of artistic freedom, unlike Ted Messerschmidt's "Numismatics"which is a highly organized, sequential piece (albeit for "percussion").  The flute part employs some of the more common extended techniques (pitch bending, harmonics) with found music turned into a rhythmic duet part.  Ann performed one of my favorite pieces, the Dutilleux "Sonatine", with solid and staccato double tonguing on the cadenzas.  The lyrical section had just enough drive to make it to the piano interlude and dance-like section.  That dance section, by the way, sounded like little sprites dancing.  Very cool :-)

Jeremy McEntire's performance of Michael Colquhoun's "Storyteller" was absolutely mesmerizing.  I love Colquhoun, even though I can barely make it through two pages of "Charanga", because he focuses on expanding the narrow range of  extended technique compositions available in the flute repertoire.  This piece, per usual, required the player to effortlessly transition from straight pitch to multiphonics and harmonics, and vocalizing.  I was glad to hear him vocalizing because it made me realize that I'm actually making progress towards sustaining that technique.  I wasn't entirely sure that I was even doing it right, but Jeremy's performance really solidified my auditory concept of the sounds I'm aiming to produce.  Dr. Easley just played the last movement of Stephen Lias' sonata for flute & piano due to time constraints, but it was a real joy to hear.  It was energetic, fun, and a great way to end a great day.