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....

Concert in Bad Homburg (near Frankfurt) August 11, 7 p.m.

One last concert before taking a break:

In the context of an exhibit of wonderful ceramics by the amazing potter Young-Jae Lee, I will offer music for solo flute. When I was first asked by the venue for program suggestions, I thought mainly of pieces by Korean composers as well as Korean- or at least Asian-influenced music. However, after actually experiencing the exhibit, reading interesting commentary, and (very important) meeting Ms. Lee herself, I was moved to make some program changes to reflect her philosophy, her working processes, and of course the atmosphere of the current exhibit.

The final version:
Works by Younghi Pagh Paan, Kaija Saariaho, Eiko Tsukamoto, J.S. Bach, Karlheinz Stockhausen

Meanwhile here is the basic information:

ALTANA Kulturstiftung im Sinclair-Haus

Löwengasse 15/Eingang Dorotheenstraße
61348 Bad Homburg
Telefon: 06172/1712120
Telefax: 06172/1712130
E-Mail: info@altana-kulturstiftung.de
Internet: http://www.altana-kulturstiftung.de


Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel von Frankfurt
S5 Bad Homburg Bahnhof

See also Frankfurt-Live.com

Summer news....

Time for a little update.
Of the months that I've missed, there's too much to report: the last concerts and celebrations in Clermont Ferrand, for example, really deserve their own chapter, complete with illustrations by the brilliant photographer Jean-Louis Fernandez! Maybe someday. Meanwhile, I want to jump right in to NOW.

Last night my students played a great recital. (Another future blog could be to report on this wonderful class at the Rochus Music School....) I forgot to mention to them that June 30 was the date I came to Germany--exactly 30 years ago!! Amazing--three decades based in Europe already!(Not to mention the rest of the world--or the other decades experienced, for that matter ;)!)

Tomorrow I pick up my 32-year-old (!) flute (Jack Moore #42) which has been newly overhauled by Christoph Siewers. Had been thinking of getting a new, "fresh" flute, but I'm so attached to MY flute, with the still-unique innovations Jack put on for me.

In two days I fly to Savonlinna, Finland to teach at a summer camp there. It's a lovely place, with great colleagues teaching and playing, a campus on the lake, and a town geared up for the opera festival, with the operas being performed in the courtyard of the old castle. Inspiring!

After that I'm back in Germany to play music by Kaija Saariaho at the Rheingau Festival in Germany: Cendres for flute, cello, piano with Anssi Karttunen and David Lively on the 22nd, the concerto Aile du songe with the Southwest German Radio Orchestra conducted by Susanna Mälkki.

More later--I promise!