Dench timez: a continuation

When I wrote my previous post on beginning the process of learning Chris Dench’s alto flute solo Gelb : Violett I had been struck by a few key things that I felt I needed to say. Now, a few days later – and the first time… Read More

Dench timez: day 1

Today I began learning Chris Dench’s alto flute solo Gelb : Violett from his Vier Darmstädter Aphorismen (which contains a solo for each of the four standard western classical flutes – piccolo, concert/C-flute, alto and bass). When I start out learning a solo like this one I’m… Read More

The necessity of STUDY!

Last week I attended a lecture as part of a master seminar series at HoGent, run by the quite incredible Lukas Pairon, entitled ‘The Philosophy of Enthusiasm’. The series has seen artists from many diverse fields giving talks on finding their passion, sticking with it,… Read More

IMD (Darmstadt) & ISA (Mürzzuschlag)

I spent most of August at summer festival-academies for new music. First up was the one and only Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik – the 47th such festival, and so it’s particularly impressive how even with a great tradition behind it, it still manages… Read More

Learning In Freundschaft

While here in Cologne I’ve been working on some of the big contemporary repertoire pieces for the flute. With Camilla Hoitenga I’ve been tackling Stockhausen’s In Freundschaft – originally for clarinet and scored for a great many different orchestral instruments. Indeed, the meaning behind the title… Read More

Grisey’s Talea in different hemispheres

While in Europe on an ArtStart, studying with musikFabrik’s Helen Bledsoe and Kaija Saariaho’s flute muse Dr Camilla Hoitenga, I’ve fallen on my feet a bit and managed to land a gig playing with Ensemble Fractales from Brussels playing Grisey’s Talea and Murail’s Treize Couleurs in early… Read More