Getting to places to do Flutewise events can often be a bit tricky. The place we were at last weekend was a 3.5 hour drive from my house, not something I could reasonably do on a Sunday morning to arrive for 9.30. Stephen very kindly said I could stay at his place as he lives a 30 minute drive away from the venue.
Stephen was at a concert in London – Emmanuel Pahud who is Stephen’s top flute hero. He arranged to leave a key with a friend who lives in the same road. I arrived at about 11.00 pm in pouring rain. I drove up and down the road looking for house numbers. I could hardly see a single one in the dark and rain. After driving up and down about 3 times I decided to park, which in itself was difficult as there were few spaces.
I ran to the friend’s house and got the key and he pointed out the direction of Stephen’s place. I was given two keys, one for the outer door and one for the inner door. I ran to the door, I couldn’t believe how heavy the rain was. I tried the key in the door. The lock wouldn’t move. I tried the other one. Still no joy. I couldn’t get in! I tried to phone Stephen but he was on the Underground and had no signal. I kept trying the keys and rattling the door. I was soaking and tired. Eventually Stephen phoned. He said he knew the keys worked so I should ring a doorbell of a neighbour and ask them to open it from the inside. I did.
After a few minutes someone opened a window upstairs. I explained I needed to get into the main front door so I could get into Stephen’s flat as he was away and I was staying the night there. The window was slammed shut. After what seemed like an age a man and woman appeared at the door. They looked scared! I assured them I was a friend of Stephen’s, had keys and a note from him with directions on. They told me no one called Stephen lived there! I had been trying to get into the WRONG door for half an hour! Stephen lives eight houses further down the road. It was lucky I hadn’t been arrested for trying to break in!
I must admit I was a tiny bit nervous putting the key in yet another lock, but it worked and I had a peaceful night in Stephen’s very lovely flat.
Getting ready to be like Ian Anderson - playing on one leg!
Yesterday Stephen and I went to Dunnington, Alcester for a flute event at the Barn. What fun we had. We were the guests of Gabrielle and Roger Leese at their beautiful home where they have this amazing concert/workshop venue in their garden. Not only were we in beautiful surroundings, with lovely flute players, we also had amazing food, including homemade cakes and biscuits! Now that’s what I call a good Flutewise event.
The day lasted from 10.00 am until 4.00 pm. We had 12 young flute players aged 8 to 14 and we did lots of work. We started with a warm up of some games and learnt my (in)famous Purple Cow poem. Later we had a look at the notes of the Hungarian Round and discussed how we could make it interesting, after which Stephen taught some funny noises, like singing and playing and jet whistles. We then dived into groups to put everything together for a ‘Purple Cow Performance’. The results were very good. The other music we looked at included Canon of Peace, Greensleeves and Mike Mower’s South Africa from Junior Musical Postcards (Boosey and Hawkes). Everyone loved this piece.
In the morning Stephen did a really good warm up and introduced harmonics and later in the day we did some breathing work with bubble blowing.
Happy birthday Pippa
The chocolate cake Gabrielle baked for us was especially welcome because it was Pippa’s birthday. She was 11 yesterday. What a great way to spend your birthday, at a Flutewise event! I’ve never done that, I wish I could!
We had the cake just before the parents arrived to hear what we’d been up to. We played South Africa, Greensleeves and Canon of Peace for them and Stephen entertained everyone with Ian Clarke’s Zoom Tube.
Everyone welcomed the news of Flutewise Live! with great excitement. Gabrielle has written a version of the Pied Piper and this will be performed at the event – you could even take part. It’s going to be wicked!
I’ll tell you about my adventure getting to the event later…..
You might like to have a look at the Slinfold Concert Band’s website and find the Flutewise photos.
Ian Clarke, Ian Anderson and Abbie Burrows
Today I’ve been all the way to London on the train. It was a lovely journey. I went to the Barbican and GSMD. When I was there I met up with the people in the photo. You know who they are, don’t you? Gareth was there as well and Ian Anderson’s son, James.
You might have already guessed what it was all about – Flutewise Live! on 3 May. We are all very excited about it.
So I’m going to let you into a couple of secrets. Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull fame) is headlining our event and playing in the evening show. Quiet sometime ago he suggested he would like to play with some flute friends and asked me for suggestions. I came up with quite a nice list. Now Ian has decided – it will be Ian Clarke and Abbie Burrows (and someone else who’ll I’ll tell you about soon). Isn’t that wonderful?!!
It was my honour to introduce them to each other today. Wow! What an experience.
There’s even more news. Sandy Hay and I commissioned Ian Clarke to write a new piece for Flutewise Live! and other performances. Something along the lines of Walk Like This. Tonight I heard it played by students at Ian’s class at the GSMD. It’s great! I can’t wait for everyone to play it!! It’s called Zig Zag Zoo.
I really do have good cause to be excited, don’t I?
I’ve had one of those really, really good weeks, when loads of work has needed doing – and it’s been done plus lots of other things have been done! You won’t see the results of all this toil yet, but suffice to say, if you are reading this, you are likely to benefit.
Andy has been working relentlessly on the website – well, to be honest, not one website, but two. One is the new Flutewise website and the other is for Flutewise Live! I’ve been busy preparing music for the new site, uploading reviews and finding articles alongside planning events.
We’ve got lost of short events coming up, which in themselves are exciting, but the most exciting thing has to be Flutewise Live! You’ll be thrilled when you find out about all the people involved; it’s quite amazing how generous people can be. Every day this week the plans have moved a huge step forward. I’ve now got so much potentially going on, I have to cut things out! Now that is an interesting position to be in. I’m just hoping all the flute players of the country (and world) will show as much enthusiasm and support it.
One really exciting bit has been the plans for the evening show with Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson. Ian has been researching some ‘flute friends’ to play with him with my help. I heard just before Christmas about one – he’s someone we all know well; he has chosen a player of Indian flutes, and this week he has chosen the third and final person. She is also someone we know really well and so that is extremely exciting. I can’t wait!!
So now I’m looking forward to another, very productive week coming up.
