New Recording!

Hi all!  I just posted a recording of my most recent performance.  On February 21, I had the honor of performing Dary John Mizelle’s Silverwind for solo flute.  Published in 1990, this solo flute piece has two movements: ‘bagatelle’ and ‘dance.’  The bagatelle is short and sweet, a sort of daydream that recalls a jazz improvisation.  The dance, in contrast, is a non-stop tour de force executed in strange meters that make one think of a dancing centipede.  I worked extra hard on this piece, and loved performing it in Loewe Theatre at NYU Steinhardt.  I have included the soundcloud link below.  Enjoy!

Stabilizing in the Whirlwind

Hi all,

I am writing, finally, from the Glorious Big Apple.  Some of you may be wondering if I made it here alive since I have drifted into near total silence.  But I am here, I am well, and am enjoying my stay here in Manhattan while I look for a place to live.  I am so blessed to be able to live in this amazing city, and I am excited to share with you all the wonderful adventures that await!  In the meantime, I dusted off an old recording of Hush: Eric Barber & Friends, a gig I was part of in Seattle in October of 2014.  I took out this excerpt of a duet between Eric Barber and I and have posted it here for your listening pleasure.  Eric, wherever you are,  thanks again for such an amazing opportunity!  I hope our paths cross again.

Dream Acoustics

350px-TrioSonata

In a massive cathedral with vaulted ceilings of gold and engraved wood, I am playing the flute with an ensemble that includes violin, cello and harpsichord.  The music is 21st Century Baroque.  Intricate melodies interweave with strange harmonies, percussive sounds and otherworldly harmonics, creating a rich tapestry of the threads of the ancient and the avant-garde.  The room is vast and open, without benches, dwarfing the audience in folding chairs listening intently as to a sermon.  Behind me is a grand fountain with curtains of water splashing delicately in the oversized pool below, which is filled with exotic goldfish.  The sound of the quartet threads itself through the rafters, creating a fourth dimension to the music that pours forth from our instruments.

I awoke with this dream about a week ago, and how sad was I that it had only been a dream!  But perhaps it is not impossible.  In the meantime, I would like to make a reappearance onto the digital stage with some updates:

1)  I have been relatively silent lately because I am in the process of getting applications ready for grad school.  In the coming weeks I will be making video recordings to send off to NYU, Mills College in Oakland, California and University of California at Irvine.  I might even post these videos to my website, so keep an eye out!

2)  Extended Horizons may seem to have come to a close – but only for now.  Keep an ear out for Extended Horizons Volume 2, new an improved with added features, to begin in early January after my applications have been mailed off.

3)  In the meantime, I thought I might share a soundcloud posted by Second Inversion which features members of the Seattle Symphony performing Ligeti String Quartet No.1, “Métamorphoses nocturnes”.  I can’t get enough of this recording, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Eric Barber & friends: Hush

Fall is officially here, and already it’s a busy one.  As you all know, I was lucky enough to have the chance to perform with Eric Barber at the Chapel last night.  It was a quiet gig; the theme of the evening was to explore the possibilities of the dynamic range from mf (medium-loud) and below.  Also, there were three people in the audience.  But it was a lot of fun, and man does it sound good in there.  I wish I could practice in the Chapel…

The performance was entirely free improvisation and included Carmen Rothwell on bass, Mike Gebhart on percussion, Christian Pincock, trombone and of course Eric Barber on saxophones. Please check these fabulous musicians out.

Thanks so much Maggie for coming out hear us play!

Extended Horizons, 9.5.2014

For this weeks post, I have uploaded an improvisation based on some material for a flute solo I am currently working on.  The materials included are pitch bends, altered timbres and my latest obsession: multiphonic tremoli (you have probably heard these in my previous posts).  Most of the sounds in this piece are based on the fingering for low B with different keys either vented or trilled, or both.  I have managed to scrawl a rough draft of this piece finally, and perhaps soon there will be a post of the piece itself.  In the meantime this improvisation will hold its place.  

 

Extended Horizons, 9.1.2014

For this improvisation I used a new fingering I learned that readily lends itself to some pretty cool multiphonic tremoli.  I enjoyed exploring this fingering in washes of sound and then making little melodies out of the fingering and similar ones.  The style of the tremolo-multiphonics is inspired by Neil Welch, from whom I was very fortunate to receive a lesson a couple of weeks ago.

Please enjoy 🙂

 

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…

Extended Horizons, 8.16.2014

Here it is August already, and school is about to start.  Not that I will be going this year – instead, I am busy putting together my portfolio to apply for Grad School.  I am not sure what my Master’s will actually be in, but I do know that one way or another I will be studying composition, improvisation and the flute.  I could end up in Northern California, Southern California or even New York.  So stay tuned, there will be more about that process to come.  In the meantime, here is the first official installment of Extended Horizons.  For this improvisation, I used an unconventional fingering that produces several different multiphonics.  With this fingering, and similar ones, I created a kind of ‘bamboo’ melody which I then interspersed with tremolo sections in which I experimented with some of the multiple tones that can be produced by this fingering.  I recorded this improvisation on the top floor of Kerry Hall at Cornish College of the Arts, the same room in which Nellie Cornish slept when she still ran the school.  This isn’t the most ideal for practicing because it makes you sound so good, but it worked well for recording, because it made me sound pretty good!  So while the sun set over glittering blue-grey Seattle, I played this little number for you….