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Extended Horizons with Julio Lopez 8.25.2014

So I have already broken two of my own rules: first of all, this track is late, having been posted on Monday instead of Saturday.  I have an excuse!  I’ve been super busy and really tired!  (Yeah, yeah, excuses excuses.  All ya had to do was post the track!)

The second broken rule is the one of time.  This one is seven minutes long – but it’s worth it.  For this recording, I was lucky enough to have, at my place one week ago today, the fabulous violinist and composer Julio Lopez (look him up at https://soundcloud.com/juliolopez-11).  It was the first time we had ever played together outside of class, and the first time we had done a free improvisation together.  We did several that day, and the one I present before you is the cream of that delicious crop.  There were times when it was very hard to play because I wanted to grin so badly – Julio has a way of playing exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment.  The effect is divine.  Now, if only I could smile while playing the flute…

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Sonic Exploration

Alright, finally here is another of my forays into solo flutelandia.  For this one, I began with a multiphonic in the first register.  The multiphonic is a major second apart.  I then explored the other possibilities of this fingering and others similar to it, finding some interesting timbres and intervals in the process.  It is amazing how much beauty can be found in the airy, imperfect spaces of the flute tone that we train so hard to smooth away.  In fact, at the moment I wonder why we strive so hard for that perfect tone, practicing and practicing for homogeneity in all registers instead of striving for greater knowledge and control of the flute’s sonic capabilities.  If we did this, I think we would have the freedom to create the sound that is right for any occasion whether it be a Bach Sonata or a an ethereal exploration of the spaces between conventional tones.

At any rate, this is my personal favorite recording so far.  I hope you enjoy hearing it as much as I enjoyed playing it.

 

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And the Video

Also, here is the video of my recital. The sound quality is not as good as the Soundcloud version which I posted previously but hey, being able to watch it is kind of cool, right?

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Recording Posted

I have just posted the Souncloud version of my senior recital, Medieval is a Two Way Choro, under SoundBits. I have also included it in this post. Thanks again to all who came and I hope to have more for you soon!

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The Big Night Looms Near

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As of today there are exactly thirteen days left until the big event of Saturday April 5, 2014.  I swing back and forth between waves of anxiety and surges of excitement as it creeps closer.  I feel like I’m juggling strangely shaped objects as I scramble to put the rest of the pieces of the big night together and yet somehow they are all still in the air.  My senior recital has been a long time in coming, and there have been many peaks and valleys on the way both in and out of school.  While I have “technically” been in college now for five years, it really has taken nine years to get to this point.  Five years ago a close friend told me that I was “an amazing flute player,” and that I should try to get into to a nice school somewhere.  I didn’t believe him; in fact my heart sank when he told me this because I wanted so badly for it to be true.  At the time I was stuck in a real mess and had very little hope for the future.  I remember all this as I write out the acknowledgments for my program and the emotions are making it really hard to say what I want to say.  In brief, I never thought I would make it to this point.  But here I am, and I look forward to the night of April 5th with eager anticipation.  I hope you all have marked your calendars and I look forward to celebrating this special event with all of you.