Rite of Spring

Just wanted to post a quick entry about Stravinsky’s ballet suite “Rite of Spring”.

I was a lucky piccoloist when I was put in that project with the RCM Symphony Orchestra (Martin Andre conducting) earlier this semester. We arrived back at school on Monday January 7th, had rehearsal that afternoon, all day Tuesday, Wednesday, dressed it on Thursday morning and performed it on Thursday night.

I have never played any Stravinsky for real before (only as excerpts or in orch rep classes!) so it was an absolutely thrilling experience. Rite of Spring is an incredible piece and the history behind it is even more exciting.

Just last weekend, I also had the opportunity to hear my teacher, Stewart MacIlwham, play the Rite of Spring with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Four of us went…myself and the boys, as usual! My friend G.Z. – who played principal flute with me in the RCMSO’s version – and I both agreed that [i]playing[/i] the Rite is so much different from [i]hearing[/i] it performed.

We heard so many other sounds and lines that we had never heard during our rehearsals/performance, and some of the things we loved from the experience of playing it, weren’t nearly as audible from the perspective of the audience (like all of my favorite bass clarinet lines! hah!). Either way, the LPO were UNBELIEVABLE as usual. Stewart rocks that little twig!

Now. Just a minute ago, I mentioned that the history behind Rite of Spring was really interesting and exciting. If you’re not up on your Stravinsky-history, here is the abridged version:

When the Rite of Spring was premiered in May 1913, the audience was so apalled they began to riot, in the middle of the 30 minute-long show! The music itself was quite unusual for its time: the meter changes every few bars (in most parts of the piece), the accents fall in strange places, unusual instruments are featured (like the alto flute!), the tonality is not comfortable to the ear and there are many other dissonances throughout.

Not only was the music unsettling, but the choreopgraphy by Najiinsky was like nothing else that had ever been done before. Najiinsky required his dancers to turn their feet inwards (instead of the classical ballet “turned out” position), they held their hands either down by their sides (like soldiers) or in a scrunched up “claw” shape. Much of the dancing was done in a circle, which seems to exclude the audience from what is happening. Normally in dance, the dancers are dancing TO the audience, bringing them in and involving them in the action on the stage. Not so with Najiinsky.

Lucky for the RCMSO players, the College brought in a specialist on Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Millicent Hodson of the Joffrey Ballet has spent many many years researching Najiinsky’s original choreography and she came in to share her knowledge with us … we even learned a few of the steps!

The Joffrey Ballet is doing centenary performance of the Rite Of Spring ballet this May, in Austin Texas, but for your viewing pleasure, I will share the youtube links to a video of that company’s recreation of the original choreography, costumes and sets.

The whole ballet is only thirty minutes long…. I hope you have time to watch on this lovely Sunday evening!

Cheers
xo

Rach On!

Last night my friend JS (Not of the Bach variety) and I headed over to Royal Festival Hall to hear the London Philharmonic Orchestra play some Rachmaninoff – the Piano Concerto No. 3 and Symphony No. 2!

I admittedly dont know a whole lot Rachmaninoff… being a flutist, there just isnt a WHOLE lot in the repertoire for me to do! No huge solos in the symphonies, no concerti or concert pieces from him. So, it was my first Rach-in-concert experience. What a night!

Originally, the whole reason I wanted to go was to see Yannick Nezet-Seguin, a fellow Canadian, conduct, but then he got sick and had to withdraw, so LPO got Mikhail Agrest on short notice. He’s a great Russian conductor who did most of his studies in the US at Indianna. He did a great job but he’s an awfully tiny guy, haha!

The pianist was Simon Trpčeski, an unbelievably talented player from Macedonia. HOLY CRAP.

Yup. I’ve never heard anything like it, and when he came up off that piano bench on the final notes of the piece, there was no holding back. The audience was shouting “bravo” and many people even got to their feet.

FYI: A standing ovation is an incredibly rare salute in the European concert halls… I think I’ve only seen one since I’ve been here, and to be honest I cant really remember what it was for.

Anyway, here’s a video of Simon Trpčeski playing the SECOND Rach Piano Concerto at the BBC Proms 2011 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Its about 36 minutes long but super divine and absolutely worth listening to while you respond to emails or creep on facebook.

Tonight myself and the boys are headed off to Royal Festival Hall again to hear the LPO do Ravel’s Mother Goose ballet suite, and one of my favorites, the Rite of Spring. Mikhail Agrest will be conducting again 🙂

Happy Saturday! xox

God bless E-Bay!

Thanks to boredom, procrastination and the internet, I found myself parousing UK ebay the other day, and discovered a lady who makes custom flute, piccolo and combination cases in the amazing Cath Kidston / Gilly Hicks type fabrics.

To say it was love at first sight would be an understatement.

I himmed and hawed for a few weeks, trying to decide if it was worth investing the 20 quid. Ended up deciding it WAS worth it to have such a stylish case, and contacted the seller to see if she could do a case design to suit my needs.

Sure enough, she was able, and my brand new, total custom, piccolo case was born into the world.

It is going to be put in the post tomorrow, so I should have it by Thursday or Friday of next week, latest. I’m really hoping it gets here ASAP though, as I’m super eager to start showing it off in real life! For now I’ll just share a photo:

Custom Piccolo Case <333333

Must head to bed now: My audition for the London Sinfonietta Academy (contemporary music summer program) is tomorrow at 10:30. I've got a practice room at school booked for 9am so it means being up bright and early. Wish me luck!!!

Sweet dreams ❤

First venture to the Royal Academy of Music

Tonight my friends and I braved the wind and rain to head over to the Marble Arch/Oxford area of London, where we attended a recital at the Royal Academy of Music. Put off by the British Flute Society, this recital featured Gareth Davies (flute, obviously) and Richard Shaw on piano.

 

The program was:

Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (for flute & piano)

Dutilleux – Sonatine

Fujikura – Glacier for Solo Bass Flute

Reinecke – Sonata “Undine”

 

 

Man oh man oh man. I have never felt so inspired to play ppp to p only. I’m pretty sure Gareth only reached forte once or maybe twice, but all the rest of the delicate, beautiful playing was absolutely divine.

 

Here’s the Fujikura piece on youtube – not Gareth playing (another super awesome flutist, Claire Chase), but at least you can hear what it sounds like. Such an interesting and well written piece. I will definitely be looking up more of his music!

At the end of the recital, Gareth did a bit of a Q&A… it was really interesting to hear him talk about life in the LSO (he is FLAT OUT all the time. Legitimately hasnt had a day off in 3 weeks. Longest stretch without a day off? 42 days. Yuck.) and about being a musician rather than a flutist.

And for those wondering: he plays on an Altus AL with a standard Altus headjoint. Nothing fancy about him.

Cheers
x

Liiiiiiiiight Buulb!

Alright. If you dont understand the heading then I absolutely demand that you go watch Despicable Me. No, its not “just for kids”, people of all ages will find it hilarious, I promise you.

In all seriousness though, I just came up from the dungeon (aka. the practice room suite in my “Halls of Residence”) where I had a major breakthrough with an articulation technique I have been having a lot of trouble. Its been the one thing my teacher, Stewart, has been after me to master since I arrived in London in September… and conveniently it is also the one thing I havent been able to get a handle on yet. UGH!

But, this morning I sorted it out, FINALLY! Thank god for a bit of luck and a stroke of genius.

The technique I’m talking about is pizzicato tonguing on piccolo. Instead of just standard “tongue hitting the back of the teeth” and creating an articulation by interrupting the flow of air, or at the very least controlling its release, pizzicato tonguing is an attack that happens by way of the tongue being pulled away from the front of the mouth. For those versed in flute extended techniques, its almost the reverse of a tongue ram.

So right. Here I was thinking all along that what I’m supposed to be doing is putting my tongue right in between my lips, in the aperture, and pulling away. YES, in theory that works but only for one particular kind of pizz articulation: High and loud. It is a fairly aggressive articulation, often accompanied by a bit of a popping sound. (You wont hear that sound if you’re not the one playing the instrument – an audience member or whatever – but it still is different from the OTHER kind of pizz tonguing).

Today when I was playing, I realized that if I put my tongue against my embouchure and pulled back, as if I was pulling a suction cup off a wall, I all of a sudden had more control and less pop: I could play staccatissimo without having to play double forte.

Thank you Baby Jesus, I have finally figured out how to do pianissimo pizzicato tonguing.

Can’t wait to show Stewart in my lesson on Tuesday. He is going to be really pleased, and I will be one step closer to my end goal for this year. Yippee!

Not being afraid of who you are

For some of you who read this blog, it may be new information that over the last 6 months to a year, I have begun to specialize in two things. The first is fairly obvious. I’m a full time piccolo player.

Being a piccolo major makes me somewhat of a rare bird. Most schools (world wide) dont even offer degrees majoring in piccolo. Technically, the Royal College of Music doesnt either. If you havent heard the story, it goes a little like this: when I found out there were at least 2 incredible piccolo players on faculty, I emailed the head of woodwinds (Simon Channing) and asked if they would consider letting me major in that, instead of flute.

Simon “hemmed and hawed” for a while, but agreed that yes it could be done, based on a successful audition. I promised that I would prove I could be a real piccolo player. So far, I think I’ve lived up to that promise. I plan to meet and exceed everyone’s expectations of both myself, and my little twig of an instrument.

The other path I have chosen to travel is that of a contemporary flutist. I am really interested and intrigued by extended techniques of all sorts, and modern music that may or may not use those techniques. I also enjoy novelty music (cue: Wake Up! For Piccolo and Alarm Clock – http://youtu.be/eJ0nMC_nlpY – etc.) and anything related to pop music, like the music of beatboxing flutist Greg Patillo.

Having come to the RCM, I have encountered several older, well known, flutists from what I would call the “old French school”. They went through RCM and the Paris Conservatoire in the ~1950s-60s, play Bach – the 1970s and that is about it. The 1970s might be a stretch even.

Every time I have played for these flutists, I have had my chosen path (contemporary music and/or piccolo player) criticized and looked down upon.

In the last few weeks, I have felt a change in my own personality or spirit, if you will. After the most recent masterclass with a well respected flutist – who, when I told him I would play Stockhausen for him, made comments about “that crap music” and Jews/Nazis – I realized that I dont care WHO I’m playing for, I dont need their approval to tell me that the music I play is good quality, or worth playing. (It is.)

I am really comfortable with the fact that I like “weird” music. I like to see what kinds of strange noises and colors I can create with my flute; I like when people have fun with my performances and can really get into and understand the music I’m playing.

I like showing people that the umbrella of classical music is a lot more wide and varied than the average person might think.

At this point, I’d like to share with you a super cool piece I’m learning.

This is Cassandra’s Dream Song: http://youtu.be/QgSPq2L9dvM. The video follows along with the score, but starts with the performance instructions that the flutist would have to read and understand before even beginning to learn the music.

This ain’t no walk in the park, folks.

Granted, this is a pretty extreme example of what I like to do. But its COOL. And its hard. It takes just as much, probably more, work to learn a piece like this as it does to be able Faure or Mozart or Jolivet.

I used to feel insecure about being a contemporary flutist, because the music I played didnnt seem to be as impressive or flashy against more standard repertoire… but then I saw a flutist (younger than me, and far more capable in other areas of flute playing) struggle with a very simple piece by Robert Dick that included a few multiphonic fingerings.

Just because I play contemporary music and you dont (and maybe dont like it) doesnt give you any right to make me feel like less of a musician.

I dont care if you’re the most famous flutist on earth.

PS: If anyone can tell me how to post the videos right into the blog post, I would really appreciate it 🙂 Cheers!

A small detail I forgot…

In my “Welcome Back After Christmas Break” post, I forgot to mention one tiny detail from the end of Fall Semester that I forgot.

Sir James Galway came to RCM and gave a masterclass! I didnt get to play, but it was still a thrill to sit in the audience and listen to him talk & teach! He is every bit as brilliant as others have said.

The best part about the whole thing was however, that in his black-shirt-with-pink-pinstripes-and-white-cuffs-and-collar, plastic square framed glasses, and camel brown coloured shoes, Sir Jimmy (who is not nearly as tall as one might expect) looked fairly identical to the old grandpa from UP.

NO JOKES.

I legitimately kid you not.

I.F. will back me on this, as he also attended the class.

Amazeballs.

xox

RCM Open Day & Masterclass with Gareth Davies

Around this time every year, the RCM hosts “Open Days” for each faculty. An Open Day is basically a regular day at College, with a few extras thrown in, so that prospective students (who’ve already been accepted to a course at College but maybe want to check it out to be sure, or need a little extra convincing that its the best place ever!) can see how everything works!

 

The woodwind faculty’s Open Day was yesterday, Friday January 25th 2013. Special events for our open day included an open Post Graduate Orchestral Repertoire class (featuring Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, with yours truly on the piccolo – more on that later), performances by the Cataleya Woodwind Quintet and the first year saxophone quartet.

 

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(Cataleya Wind Quintet – my friends!)

 

Simon Channing, head of woodwinds, also organized an Orchestral Excerpt masterclass with Gareth Davies, principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra. Simon emailed some of the postgrad flute players in the school and we all got to play for Gareth for about 30 minutes…..with just 2 days notice!

Apparently I was the only one who actually went out of my way to prepare something. Or maybe its more like I’m the only one that has to make a special effort to prepare excerpts, because (bad me) they’re not a part of my daily practice.

Anyway! I prepared some excerpts from Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade, on piccolo of course!

I have seen Gareth give a rep class before, and thought he was really great, so I was definitely looking forward to the class, and my fingers were crossed that I would have a good experience:

Last semester had several stressful situations for me, mostly concerned with performance anxiety. I played a few times and had a really hard time with my anxiety, to the point where my breathing was hard to control, my palms would be really sweaty and I would literally be shaking in my boots!

I had a few tough performances but after a really good Christmas break, and some positive changes with things at College, I came back to this semester feeling much better!

To my incredible delight, the class went REALLY great!

I didnt feel the anxious nerves at all – just excited nerves! I played just as well as everyone else who did, and Gareth had good things to say. He encouraged me not to play timidly just because I was in a small room with a dozen people sitting around. “Go ahead and break their ear drums!”.

Funnily enough, true to a dream I had had the night before, Gareth wanted me to play the excerpt with him (as it happens in the piece – the piccolo is in octaves with both flutes) to work on volume and tuning.

 

In the end it was heaps of fun (my one Aussie word – heaps – to celebrate Australia day!) and I was thrilled with how I played!

Yay for a great day!

 

The LAST part of “Open Day” at RCM is always a happy hour in the BaRCM.

We shared a few pints with friends from college, and new friends who might be studying next year. The only sad thing was that for me, I will never get to study with these guys, as I am graduating from RCM in just 5 short months – 4, if you dont count the month long break I have in March & April!

 

Speaking of … 55 my days till I head home again! So much to do between now and then!

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I know there are MANY hours of practice on the books for my Sunday.

 

Cheers!

Welcome Back!

My apologies for not having posted in literally months. The last post would have been from October’s Sky Fall premiere, and let me tell you, a heck of a lot has happened since then.

During the end of last semester, I got really sick and was out of commission for about 2 and a half weeks. I did manage to get to school to play in Variable Geometry, the contemporary music project under the direction of Jean-Phillippe Calvin. We played some very interesting new music by some current and former RCM students. It was an exciting project and I am very much looking forward to playing with this group again later this semester.

At the end of the fall semester, I was pleased to be playing principal piccolo with the RCM Symphony Orchestra for a selection of works: Barbers Second Essay (absolutely to die for!), Strauss’ Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils, and Belshazzar’s Feast (for choir and orchestra) by Walton. The conductor for this concert was the wonderful Martin Andre from the Portugal Opera and Symphony Orchestra.

 

I headed back to Canada on December 2nd and boy did I have an awesome break! I worked way too much (which is great cause I love my store and I made lots of money, but it also meant I was really busy and didnt get to see my friends or family as much as I could have), played a number of gigs and concerts with various people/ensembles, rode my horse a LOT (yay! We did a dressage clinic with Roz Moskovits that changed everything for us. So happy about that!) and practiced a bit 🙂

My five week vacation was not to last forever tho, so on January 5th I came back to London. Been here 11 days now, and basically havent stopped, until today.

Upon arriving in London, I hit the ground running.

Of my two projects for this semester (Variable Geometry being one), the first and most exciting one was playing principal piccolo with the RCM Philharmonic Orchestra.

We did a performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which also included a presentation on the ballet and the history of the work – there was a lot of drama involved so it was quite interesting! The orchestra even got to do their own workshop with a choreographer and learned some of the interesting dancing that took place in the original ballet!

The concert took place in Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall at college, on the first Thursday back at school. Thats right. the FIRST Thursday.

We started rehearsals on Monday afternoon, so had a grand total about 26 hours on the piece, and then rocked the heck out of it in concert on Thursday night.

 

To date I think this has been the most exciting performance during my time at Royal College.

 

Right now I am waiting for my teachers to get organized so we can start our lessons. Stewart is away with the LPO on tour playing in the Canary Islands, but I expect he comes back in the next few days, so I should be able to see him next week! I have a lesson with Kathleen this friday (whoops…better go back to the practice room and do more work on Scheherezade and Bartok!) and a lesson with Carla, my new contemporary-specialist flute teacher (so exciting!) next week.

Very much looking forward to this semester at RCM. My friends and I are planning a trip to Paris, and I am playing some really exciting music in preparation for my June recital.

 

For now, I’m off to get some lunch, mail some music back to Just Flutes for return, and then its back to the practice room. Work work work!

 

xox

 

PS: Prince Harry is supposed to be coming back from Afghanistan this month. Will let you know how that goes. x

Pop Quiz! (007: Skyfall)

Q: Where did the premiere of007:  Skyfall take place?
A: Royal Albert Hall.

Q: Where is Royal Albert Hall?
A: Where is Royal Albert Hall you ask? Why, on Prince Consort Road of course!

Q:Where do I go to school?
A: Royal College of Music … PRINCE. CONSORT. ROAD.

 

…Just saying.

I didnt stay for the actual premiere, but I did snap a few shots on my way in and out of school:

Like I said, I didnt stay for the actual premiere, but my friends G.M. and G.Z. did. I have to say they got some amazing photos of Dame Judy Dench and Daniel Craig!!! I will ask if I can share some of the photos with you … you’d be jealous!

Apparently, according to the boys, the faculty had booked one of the 2nd floor teaching studios at school and put a sign on the door that said “SKYFALL VIEWING ROOM” – so everyone could go in and watch! The view must have been incredible… the school was in the perfect place for it!

If I can post more pictures from G.M. I will … you bet! For now you’ll just have to enjoy my crappy Nokia phone pics 🙂

xoxo