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Recording session 25 Dec
I like this blog venue, I can publish those funny pictures that are kinda cool, but you just don’t know where to put them. They’re not “official” enough for the website, and certainly don’t belong hanging on my wall. My piano partner Lyosha just sent me the best of our session from 25 Dec. 2008. […]
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Sexism; what, me, bitter?!
Here I am about 5 months pregnant! About 20 years ago I ran into a male flute friend of mine who had just finished studying with a majorly famous European teacher (no longer among the living). I don’t know what possessed my friend to make the following confidence, but the shadow it cast has been […]
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Real-Life Professional
It’s the first day of a project and you have that tell-tale itchyness in you chest: you know for sure that some damned flu bug has found a temporary home in your warm, moist bronchial passages, just the very ones you rely on to play the flute. My body temp. went down to below 35 […]
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The Value of Time
I’d like to keep a running blog, something I can keep coming back to, on just how long it takes to do stuff. Especially practice things. We are all told – do your Moyse long tones! do your scales! etc. However, I notice that with my students and myself, under the gun and with a […]
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Thoughts on Prokofiev Flute Sonata
Several times I’ve been asked by students “so how do I play Russian music?”This is always within the context of the Prokofiev Sonata. The history of this piece is quite well known now, especially since Patricia Harper’s article (DFG 4/2008) has been published in the US and Germany (and elsewhere, for all I know). I […]
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Pet Peeves for composers
This is going to be a work in progress. To all composers – here is one musician’s (of the flutist persuasion) list of pet peeves:There is a compositional tradition which I would like to ask composers to please avoid, especially when writing for wind players. This is using a comma (which looks to a wind […]
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Stolen Moments: What Makes a Composition Difficult?
This has got to be the worst time to start something you want to keep up. Blogging, now, with work and a 4 month old baby? Are you nuts? Well, silly question.I figure this stuff is in my head anyway, might as well get it out and get on with my life. A composer asked […]