An amazing flutist

On Sunday, August 15, Patrick and I were driving home from a family reunion that took place in Aptos, CA (Aptos is near Santa Cruz). It was a long drive, and there was a ton of traffic, and for much of the way, Patrick (who had suggested taking the 101 instead of the speedier 5, as we had for the drive up north!) was asleep. It was fine with me - I turned up the Radiohead and watched the road.

But one can only listen to so much Radiohead, and so when we got to Santa Barbara, where traffic was at its worst (I heard later that Hailey Duff, the actress [or actress's sister?] was married that day in Santa Barbara, but I don't know if we can blame her for the traffic), we pulled off the freeway to find a bathroom and to just feel our legs again. While I was waiting for Patrick (he went inside the 7-11 or wherever we were to buy me a bottle of water), I was flipping around on the radio.

I stopped when I found a performance of "Concertino," by Cecile Chaminade.

This piece was (is, maybe, I'll have to ask) a rite of passage for my flute teacher's students (most of you know that my flute teacher was, and sometimes is, Patty Sikorski, the leader of the Culver City Flute Choir) when I was a teenager. We all played it when we were around the age of high school seniors. Ready or not, here you go! I also got to play it (once) with my high school band (I guess we had a band arrangement? Oh, that was a long time ago), and boy, what I would give for the opportunity to do that again! SO much fun. I love to hear it played, too - it's a fun piece all around. And I remember my wonky counting on the triplets that I had to fix. For some reason my rhythm was wacky in some really strange places.

Anyway, since then (I won't tell you how long it's been since I was a high school senior... but it was a while ago) I've pretty much kept the music in a permanent place on my music stand. I get it out and play it once in awhile, and fall in love with it all over again. I love the power I feel when I play it - it's a beautiful melody, and definitely the opposite of wimpy - I always feel like a French soldier going to war when I play it. I like to think that in the __ years since I "learned" it that I've acquired more skills and better technique than I had as a high school senior, but who knows? When you play alone in the living room with just the cats, neighbors and your husband for an audience (and chances are the cats and Patrick aren't listening) there's not a whole lot of feedback.

After Patrick returned from the convenience store, we sat there in the parking lot to listen - I wanted to hear who the player was. I thought the performance was very exciting, though the tone was slightly, just a teeny tiny bit rough (I just love sparkling, knifelike flute playing), but like I said, it was a very exciting performance, full of lots of life and speed and waaaay faster and better than I could play it. I don't even really feel right about criticising the playing - it was truly a great performance.

So imagine my surprise when the announcer (who turned out to be Christopher O'Reilly; we were listening to the "From the Top" radio show) said that the performer was Emma Resmini, a flutist who is - wait for it - 9 years old. 9 years old! At 9 years old I was barely starting, and really didn't know what this "flute" thing in my hands was. She's incredible, and her interview was fun and interesting, and man, I'm impressed.

You can read her bio here. She's a Sonare artist. Sonare is part of Powell, and I have recently become a long-distance love affair with Powell flutes (the distance between us is the cost of the flutes!).

There are YouTube videos available, and I'll link to some of them later or you can search for her yourself. I see that one of them is the first movement of the Hindemith flute sonata (another favorite!). I know what I'll be doing later.

Click on the title of this post and you should be taken to the "From the Top" website and the show we heard in Santa Barbara. Enjoy! And brava, Emma!

A walking flutist needs your help!

I may have mentioned before that the reason I play the piccolo now is because back in high school I had a friend named Deb who encouraged and helped me with it, and I'm so glad she was there, because she made playing the flute and piccolo fun and exciting for me, especially when we hit the high notes in tune.

We were marching Centaurs together at Culver City Senior High School, and somewhere there's a photo of us both in our goofy band uniforms, but instead I'm just going to share one of Deb (I think she's in the 8th grade here), because today she's the star of this show:
 
That's Deb, right in the middle, holding a flute. Isn't she cute! This was before she unleashed her piccolo prowess on us (and way before she traded in her flutes for a saxophone, which we won't be discussing today!).

(Or, Deb, is that a metal picc and I'm just blind?)

So what will we be discussing today?

Deb has signed up for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for a Cure. She'll be walking November 19-21 in San Diego, and yes, you read that right: 3 days of walking, 60 miles total.

She's doing it to honor her friends and family who have struggled with cancer, and she's doing it because she has a huge heart and because she cares.

She's been hard at work training and fundraising and raising her young family, and I can't think of a much better cause than this. You all know how personally cancer has affected my life, and I know I'm not the only one.

If you would like to support Deb, a former flutist (and believe me, I'd love to remove that "former" from this description! Deb, you're amazing!) in her walk, you can visit her web page and make a donation.

Thanks for reading this.