Post-convention interview: Julie

Was this your first time attending the flute convention? If no, what keeps you interested in returning? If yes, will you go again? This was not my first convention but my first since 2004. I have never been able to make it to all four days of the conventions but I've attended Columbus (2000), Washington DC (2002) and Nashville (2004). I'm hoping to possibly attend in Charlotte next year (Trevor Wye and Carol Wincenc are the lifetime achievement honorees) and I'm planning on going to Las Vegas in 2012.

Were there any performances that stood out for you in particular? Who was the performer and what did they play? All the performances were inspiring and wonderful. Even the weird modern stuff where the performer gets weird tonal sounds out of the flute. While that music doesn't particularly appeal to me, I'm impressed and respect the technique involved to make those sounds.

As for performances, I went to a Headliner Recital on Friday starring Nobutaka Shimizu. He is, without question, the best flutist I've ever heard. Beautiful tone, technically amazing, it was AMAZING. When he finished, the entire audience jumped to their feet. It was unreal. He was the biggest highlight for me.

The other favorite performance was the Friday night Gala Concert featuring the Lifetime Achievement Recipients Leone Buyse and Fenwick Smith. They both performed solo and a duet and it was fabulous to hear them play. The second half of the concert featured players who studied under them. Wow, they were great. The most impressive was the final performance by Marianne Gedigian. She played "Fantasy on Der Freischutz" by Raffanel. It was technically very difficult and beautiful (as opposed to some of the modern stuff that was performed) and she blew everyone else out of the water.

I attended a masterclass on Sunday lead by Michael Faust. He performed at the Saturday Concert and he performed modern stuff. That was just OK. The masterclass was outstanding. There were three students performing for him and his notes to these three outstanding flutists was inspiring. He knew the music so well, he had such a lovely personality and sense of humor, he was able to give notes that were helpful and not an ounce of "talking down" to these students. I stayed the entire 90 minutes and enjoyed it thoroughly.

I also attended a lobby concert on Sunday featuring the Davis Youth Flute Choir. They were mostly high school students and they were pretty good. What I wanted to see performed was the Brandenburg No. 4 for full flute choir, since this is my all time favorite piece. They did have some pitch issues (so do we at time so I wasn't throwing any stones) but I LOVED the piece. It's a challenging arrangement that had good, meaty parts for everyone. I'd love for us to play this because we could totally do it.

What was your favorite part of the entire convention? The concert with Nobutaka Shimizu what the highlight.

What special thing, if anything, did you buy in the exhibit hall? I didn't make any big purchases. I did buy some music of some of the pieces I had heard performed at the convention.

If you made a major purchase (flute, headjoint, etc.), what did you buy and what did you replace? I will probably take the plunge and buy a gold headjoint by the end of the year. In 2004, I tried a 10k Sankyo gold flute and it felt and sounded great for me. 6 years later, that's still the best sounding flute for me. So I played the rose gold flute which sounded great and then I tried the 14k gold flute which also sounded great, but too expensive. But I tried the 14k gold headjoint with my flute body and it sounded fabulous. So I'm working on saving up a little bit more and then hopefully I'll make that big purchase.

Is there anything else you'd like to talk about (concerning the convention, flute playing, the flute choir, etc.)? I'm glad I went this year after so many years off. Like everything else in these economic times, I thought it was "smaller" than what I remembered in 2004. I looked at my convention book from that year and there were definitely more activities going on. I remember really having a tough time choosing where to go because there were so many interesting events going on at the same time. This year, the event choices were all good, but it was easy to pick the one I wanted to go to. I didn't really play my flute this year other than the closing ceremonies. I was inspired by all the great players and if I'm able to buy the headjoint in the next few months, I'll be much happier playing my flute.