Category Archives: Stephen's posts

Occasionally, Stephen visits Liz and posts on the blog. He is obsessed with comments and gets upset if he doesn’t get lots of them. Please comment on his posts!

Abbotsholme from Stephen

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Posted by Liz Goodwin on April 11, 2009 – 4:27 pm
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Ethiopian Rounders

Ethiopian Rounders

Hi everyone.

I hope you are all having a relaxing Easter hols!  Two people that I know for sure are not relaxing are Liz and Andy.  That’s right – our Flutewise King and Queen are working flat out to get everything ready for the HUGE event at the Barbican.  So since I am such a lovely guy, I thought I would give Liz a wee rest from blogging and tell you all about Abbotsholme. This residential course is always my favourite to take part in. It’s just such a great venue! Abbotsholme school is a very posh boarding school in Staffordshire (very near to Alton Towers) with great facilities, a fantastic chapel (with a Steinway grand piano) to use for all the playing and concerts and amazing food!!!

There were about 25 young players from all over staying from Saturday until Tuesday along with the staff who were Liz, Andy, Gareth, Abbie, Chris, our special visitor Richard Douglas (from Northern Ireland) and me.  It was a really jam packed few days with all kinds of fluting activities.  We had loads of flute choir with some really good, new repertoire, a fantastic student concert, a staff concert entitled, “The Wrong Concert” (this was a brilliant invention of Abbie’s).  Maybe someone who witnessed it can tell us all about it by leaving a comment here????  Oh and wait till you see Abbie’s new flute!!!!! which she is unveiling at the Barbican on May 3rd.  Unbelievable!) and loads of usual games and fun including “Ethiopian Rounders”.  On Saturday, we had an amazing visit by Ian Clarke.  Ian is a legend……what more can I say.  You must come and see him at Flutewise Live!

It really was an amazing few days.  If you where there you must leave a comment.  MUST MUST MUST!!!!  Liz is far too soft on you all when it comes to comments so I am adopting a different approach. You absolutely must leave me a comment here.  End of.  Or I will be so very, completely sad and upset.

Abbie and Stephen have new flutes

Abbie and Stephen have new flutes

Following Abbotsholme, I have had a very “interesting” few days involving some bizarre flute activities which I am sure I will tell you about in time. Oh and also I finally collected my new flute.  I am sure I will tell you more about that later too.

Also have you all visited the Flutewise Live! website?  You must because Andy “genius webmaster extraordinaire” Goodwin has made a discussion forum!!  Whoooooo!!!!  Check it out.

Hope you all have a great holiday!

Love,
Stephen.

P.S.  See you at the Barbican on May the 3rd for Futewise Live!  You absolutely must be there or else!  No excuses!

It’s me!!!

8
Posted by Stephen Clark on March 7, 2009 – 11:15 pm
Filed under Stephen's posts
Flutewise at Greycoat Hospital School

Flutewise at Greycoat Hospital School

Well, hello everyone.  It has been ages since I left a wee message for you all on Liz’s Blog so today I was thinking it’s time I changed that. I am currently in Flutewise HQ because Liz and I have had a very exciting day today in London.  Let me tell you all about it:

The day started off with a visit to All Flutes Plus where we had a quick chat with Des and Eimer who work there and a quick nosey round the shop and a look at the most expensive flutes I could find and also a look at the new Flutemats that are on sale (and I believe you may be ble to win one of these in the Flutewise magazine very soon).

Lunch – We had sandwiches. I had a very tasty one filled with vegetables and salad and some kind of strange but yummy sauce. Liz had different vegetables. That all sounds a bit disgusting but actually they were very good. I drank a Diet Coke and Liz had a coffee.

Following lunch, we went to an Exploration Flutewise event at Greycoats Hospital School in central London. Karen Bertalocinni is the flute teacher here and she obviously does an amizing job because her pupils where ace. (Top fact – Karen is also a world class photographer. Did you know it was Karen who took the now legendary photo of me with Emmanuel Pahud.  To see this photo please visit my website).

Anyway back to the flute day… the flute players were brilliant.  They worked very hard and achieved a very high standard.  My only complaint was that they were all so quiet!  But I can forgive them for that.  We played Zig Zag Zoo which is such a fantastic piece.  Wait until you hear it. You will be blown away – Ian Clarke is officially a legend.  We also played Hungarian Round as well as a few games and a big flutey warm up at the start.  If you were there you must comment and tell us all about it.

After the event, Karen kindly gave us a lift in her Rolls Royce to Top Wind which was only round the corner.  There we had a quick cup of tea and chat with Andy and Patrick who work there and again another nosey around the shop with more attention spent on the flutes I can’t afford.

After a very, very, very, very long walk…

Dinner – Garfunkels Restaurant eatery (Ahem – Ed.).  I had a chilli cheese burger and Liz had a veggie burger.  We both had a glass of red wine (Merlot) and side salads (because we are greedy).  Mmmmmmmm.

And so following that we swiftly got on the tube to head back home when something terrible… and awful happened, but, I have run out of room here so I will tell you about that another time.  Hope everyone is having a great and flutey weekend and looking forward to seeing you all at the Barbican for Flutewise Live! (because you better be there or else!).

Please do comment or I will cry.

Love, Stephen

I’m very disappointed

4
Posted by Stephen Clark on December 11, 2008 – 10:13 pm
Filed under Stephen's posts
Stephen reading the new Flutewise magazine for the first time.

Stephen reading the new Flutewise magazine for the first time.

What can I say?  Only 6 comments on my last blog and two of them are from me!  It made me sad.

Anyway, onto new things. I have just popped into Flutewise HQ to have a quick flick through the new magazine (it should be with you in the next few days). I have to say that I was shocked at a few things in it (in a good way) and it really, really made me smile and laugh. The “Fluteland” feature is incredible, but the best bit has to be page 42. I can’t tell you why, I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but as soon as you see it you will know exactly what I mean. Any guesses as to what it could be?

Love, Stephen.

Guess who?

6
Posted by Stephen Clark on December 9, 2008 – 3:12 pm
Filed under Stephen's posts
Stephen Clark

Stephen Clark

Hi everyone! It’s been such a long time since I blogged on here and I just couldn’t resist putting a wee entry for you all to read. I am down at Flutewise HQ because for the last few months I have been touring with Glyndebourne Opera and this week we are in East Sussex which is where Liz and co. live.

Glyndebourne is a world famous opera company who, at the moment, are performing three different operas around the country. The tour has been great fun and has involved workshops and performances of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”. It’s a very special production of it and involves only one flute player (Me!!!).

It has been loads and loads of fun and I am sad that this is the last week for a good few months.

This morning, Lady Goodwin herself came to see a workshop and performance (I thought it was lovely of her to come) and then she treated me to a spot of lunch after (I had a coronation chicken sandwhich, Liz had egg mayo). Have any of you lot seen it? I am particuarly excited about today’s concert – the BBC news crew were there and it is documented on “South East Today” (BBC 1 SE – 6.30pm. Get the Sky+ set or go to the BBC iPlayer now!)

This eve, Liz and I are off to Cranleigh to have a reahearsal for a concert this Saturday. I will fill you in on this another time but it should definately be lots and lots of fun.

What have you all been up to? Anything exciting? Anyone hoping for a new flute for Christmas pressie? Or any other gossip at all?

Love,
Stephen.

Update: The news item can be watched on the BBC website, probably only viewable in the UK.

Stephen: keeping the blog alive

9
Posted by Stephen Clark on July 25, 2008 – 11:37 am
Filed under Stephen's posts

Hi everyone. I just thought I would post a wee blog while Liz is off sunning herself. I hope you’re all enjoying the summer? In Scotland, our summer only lasts about 3 days and we are definately in the middle of it because both today and yesterday have been sunny!!! (I guess that means tommorrow is probably our last day of sunshine for another 50 or so weeks).

I hope you have all been keeping busy. On Monday, I made a fun little trip down to Birmingham and I stayed with Sandy Hay (of Flutewise fame). We had a very pleasant evening cooking on his new barbeque in his garden. His chicken kebabs where very tasty indeed – although his mind was somewhere else because about two minutes before I arrived at his doorstep he had just seen a mouse running across his kitchen floor!!!!!

Aside from my little jaunts around the country, my flute has been keeping me active as ever. At the moment I am preparing for the onslought of performances coming up. I have a recital up in the north of Scotland in a few weeks followed by 7 days of 7 concerts throughout Italy and Croatia (not the same part as Liz though – she is near Split and I am going to Dubrovnik and somewhere else in Croatia which I have already forgotten the name of. In Italy, I am going to Venice and Rome and a few other places). The programme includes a Sonata by Telemann, a Sonata by Gaubert, Sonata by Mouquet, Suite by Mcilwham, Orange Dawn by Ian Clarke and some other stuff. (Possibly a Zoom Tube here or there too!!!). Following that, I am coming back to the UK to move into a new flat! Then, I am off to the British Flute Society’s convention in Manchester for three days. Any of you lot coming? Then its four days at Abbotsholme with Flutewise (and maybe even a trip to Alton Towers – Whooooo!) Who is coming to that? Then I am off to Rutland to give a masterclass and recital in Oakham School – this should be a good day and as far as I am aware it is already booked out! I love doing these kind of days so looking forward to that one. And as normal I am sure I will see a few Flutewise members there too!

Anyway, this blog seems to be getting awfull long so I will leave it there. Please please please post your comments because I love to hear what you have all been up to (flutey news or non-flutey news) and you guys are really what Flutewise is all about so keep them coming!

Love,
Stephen.

P.S. The photo above is of me with some of my very good friends after a concert I gave in Manchester. They are all flute players. They are me, Jen Brimson (from Canada), Peter Lloyd, Adam Chidley and Katy Welch.