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

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!

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.