Tuesday, December 20, 2011

November, December....

Besides masterclasses and some teaching and smaller concerts here and there, I've enjoyed quite a variety of projects in the past months:
Completing a pamphlet on the flute music of Kaija Saariaho (look here) took priority (and involved a nice weekend in Bruges
to meet the composer for her final comments).

Plus trips to Bad Ems to celebrate with the winners of the Azumi Flute competition; to Paris for various meetings and exhibits; not to mention teaching, practicing and planning, as well as trying to bring order to my still-new-for-me apartment! Interesting times!!


Paris

Monday, December 19, 2011

October 2011

FLUTE SCHOOL LONDON
Congratulations to flutist/organizers Janna Hüneke & Kate Grace who successfully launched Flute School London for the 2nd year. It was great to be part of it all! This year's tutors were Rachel Brown, Andy Findon, Mike Mower, Camilla Hoitenga, Simon Gilliver, Abigail Burrows, Jean-Paul Wright and Jaqueline Vann.



The team l.to r.: Kate, Ian, Simon, Gareth, Abigail, with Janna & Camilla kneeling.

September 2011: Concerts


ROULETTE, New York City
The first concert was on the 15th of September, at the GRAND OPENING. I was honored to be asked to play again at the space where I had played what turned out to be my New York debut some years ago. I opened with Kaija Saariaho's Dolce Tormento for piccolo solo, followed by the version with video of NoaNoa (with Kaija mixing the electronics and Jean-Baptiste Barriere managing the video with his team). See here the The New York Times report...
Guests of honor...

Director Jim Staley

Five days later I was back again with the New York premiere of Stockhausen's Harmonies--the 5th Hour of Klang for solo flute, Shoko Shida's Fukura semé for solo flute and nohkan, and the world premiere of Jean-Baptiste Barrière's Crossing the Blind Forest for bass flute, live electronics and live video.

COLOGNE, Germany
Before New York was the premiere of Toward the Silence, composed by myself (music for voice, bass and concert flutes) and Claudia Robles (voice, video, live electronics). No press, no pictures yet...another time, perhaps....

NJO Apeldoorn & Nijmegen 2011


Backstage in Nijmegen with Maestra Xian Zhang before my 20-somethingth performance of Kaija Saariaho's Aile du songe with the NJO Orchestra...


...and with the amazing musicians of the academy chamber ensemble!

Montepulciano 2011


The incredible trio of Sonja Horlacher, Kate Spencer & Jenni Hogan with pianist Janka Simowitsch. Statistics: four countries represented, four centuries of music studied and presented, four great cooks who spoiled the teacher, 4 x 2 or 3 hours daily of intensive exchange...with and without Vino Nobile....a fantastic week!!!

Savonlinna 2011


Sunday, July 31, 2011

June, July, August....

I could write for hours about the great masterclasses in Savonlinna and Montepulciano!!(and about the interesting delays and detours in travel plans caused by the fire at a Rome train station last week!). And of course I should post photos, but meanwhile the travel schedule continues: this week Den Haag and Hannover, next week Kürten and Kootwijk, followed by Apeldoorn and Groningen.

And when I return, I'll have two weeks to move house! Never a dull moment....

Also--I have a new website! Please check out hoitenga.com , set up for me by Vera Zimperfeld at Media-Maedel, with the idea that I'll be able to update it myself. This might eventually take the place of this blog....

Best wishes to all!

Monday, May 16, 2011

March, April, May....

The March concert has come and gone, as have the ones in April and May, and I'm seriously behind in posting. On the other hand, I have been investing some energy in creating a new website, which may eventually make this blog unnecessary (!).

Meanwhile, others have been posting for me, as it were. For example my great colleagues in Copenhagen. For some photo-documentation of our concerts there, please check the site of Athelas Sinfonietta.

And for those of you who read French, here's a review of the concert in Caen.

In between I wrote about the music of Kaija Saariaho (to be available soon), arranged some little pieces for an upcoming recital of my students, and participated in a very tough jury for the flute exams of a private school in Paris.

Now I'm enjoying my "home again" status, catching up on teaching, preparing for upcoming concerts, planning cool projects for my summer masterclasses (!) and attending some concerts myself. Just got to hear Boulez conducting the opening concert of the "Acht Brücken" Festival in Cologne, for example. Amazingly shimmering sounds he drew out of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Ravel,Schönberg and Stravinsky, and I especially enjoyed the inspired and inspiring playing from flutist Chiara Tonelli.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Concert March 18 in Cologne, 8 pm, Maison Belge

Program:
Airscope I - Isao Matsushita
Manto - Scelsi
Density 21.5 - Varèse
Musik über die Callot Figuren - Pèter Köszeghy
(German Premiere)
Syrinx - Debussy
Lunar Phases (Premiere) - Miyuki Ito
Pieces for harp solo - Gordon Sherwood
Venus - Miquel Lorca (Premiere)


with Xenia Narati, harp, and Vincent Royer, viola

Das Konzert findet im Rahmen der Reihe Schlüsselwerke der Neuen Musik von
ON - Neue Musik Köln statt.

ON - Neue Musik Köln wird gefördert durch das Netzwerk Neue Musik, ein
Förderprojekt der Kulturstiftung des Bundes, sowie durch die Stadt Köln und
die RheinEnergieStiftung Kultur.

More here:
ON
or here:
Kulturkenner - Camilla Hoitenga in Köln

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Masterclasses Summer 2011

Watch for details about two courses:

July 2-10 in Savonlinna, Finland

A summer camp on the lake for flutists of all ages and levels, with opportunities for chamber music with strings and piano, and flute ensemble sessions together with the class of my flutist colleague Ilari Lehtinen.

July 17-21 in Montepulciano, Italy

A masterclass for flutists age 16 and above in a charming town in the Toscana...
exploring performance practices from the 17th c. to the present....preparing for final concert...

Master class Helsinki





At long last--a note on our November master class in Espoo (Helsinki). Organized by the Finnish Flute Association (special thanks to flutist/president Asa Gustavson, as well as flutist/photographer Heli Talvitie!!), this weekend included everything from visits to the "Animal Farm" (see the "cute puppies" practicing their panting!!) to premieres of four (4!) new solo flute pieces, written especially for this occasion.
Highly recommended:
Vellu Halkosalmi: Choro
Lauri Toivio: Marching Piper
Jukka-Pekka Lehto: Gedichte für Flöte

And the fourth one, for which I don't have the exact name & title with me...later.....

All the composers were present, lots of the flute teachers as well, and the students played WONDERFULLY!!!

Am already looking forward to my next Finland visits!!