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!

Stephen has been to N Ireland

7
Posted by Stephen Clark on June 26, 2008 – 10:29 am
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Hi guys. I just wanted to tell you all about a fantastic weekend I have just spent in Northern Ireland! I was over in a place called Ballymena (its just outside Belfast) to give a masterclass and concert for the Kellswater Flutes. As I am sure many of you are aware -flute playing in Northern Ireland is VERY popular and the day was packed out with around 50 active participants and others just watching. The standard overall was extremely high and the ages ranged from very young to very adult. There was some playing by the younger ages that really blew me away!!!! we had all kinds of repetoire performed including the Poulenc – Sonate, Bizet/Borne – Carmen Fantasie and Ian Clarke – The Great Train Race. The day was organised by Glen Houston and there were a few other familiar faces too! The photo above was taken after the masterclass and you can see from left to right – Colin Fleming (principal flute of Ulster Orchestra), Taylor Ross, Me, Richard Douglas and Glen Houston. I especially want to say thanks to Glen for having me and my good friend Taylor and his family for looking after me – I have not eaten breakfasts as good as that for a long time!

I hope we are all looking forward to Abbotsholme? I know I am!!!!

What has everyone else been up to then?

Love,
Stephen.

Stephen says…

6
Posted by Stephen Clark on June 18, 2008 – 2:48 pm
Filed under Stephen's posts

I have a question – at the weekend I was working in London and so was staying at quite a fancy hotel called the London Mercure Bankside (it was very nice and my bed was very comfy too). In the lobby, hidden away in the corner, was a computer with internet access. So just before I checked out on Sunday afternoon, I sat down to send some emails. When I clicked at the address bar at the top though the Flutewise website was already there and it was the most recent on the list!!! that means someone else who was staying in the hotel knew of Flutewise!!! Who was it? Are they reading this????????? Let me know if your here!!!!!

Love,
Stephen.

(P.S. If you are on here – I am sorry if i disturbed you with my scale practice on Saturday morning -I was doing it in the bathroom because i could not find anywhere else. Sorry!).

Stephen blogs again

9
Posted by Stephen Clark on June 10, 2008 – 1:37 pm
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I just wanted to tell you quickly about the concert on Friday. it was held in the concert hall of the RSAMD in Glasgow to celebrate the retirement of David Nicholson, professor of flute at RSAMd and principal flute of Scottish chamber orchestra. this was a great night. There were some fantastic people taking part. All students or colleagues of David’s. Apart from myself, there was Wissam Boustany, Jerry Randalls, Eddie Maguire (the Whistlebinkies), Kathleen Stevenson (BBC Symphony), John Grant (RSNO), Sheena Gordon (SCO), Scottish Flute Trio and so many more. I was blown away by some of the playing actually. I think its fair to say that David is propbably the most successful flute teacher the UK if not the world has ever produced. I was a delight to study with him for 4 years. For those of you who do not know david, come to abbotsholme because he is teaching and playing for us there in August and it should be amazing!!!!!!

Who do you find to be your greatest influence on the flute and why? Do you have a favourite player? lets get loads of comments on this one!!!!!

love,
Stephen.

Stephen on our concert in Slovenia

2
Posted by Stephen Clark on June 2, 2008 – 1:28 pm
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Hi Guys. I just wanted to quickly tell you about the concert we gave at the Slovenian convention. It was so much fun and congratulations to all who played because it has been a while since I have heard you all play together and the improvement was amazing. You sounded incredible!!! I was also so immpressed with how professional you all acted on stage too – you made me feel very proud and honoured to be standing up there with you.

For those of you not there -we were in fact the big finale of the whole convention. We performed on the Sunday evening in “The Glass Hall” to a pretty packed audience. We had a huge programme which included all sorts. Sandy was our brilliant principal conductor and I know we are all very grateful to his fantastic energy, musicianship and guidance. We were also very lucky to have Ian Clarke conduct us in “Walk Like This” (his own piece) which went down a storm!

For me, the highlight was when we were joined by some Slovenian flute players to perform Gypsy Airs (conducted by Gareth), Celtic Exploration (from memory no less – composed by our very own Maestro Sandy) and Brian Borus March. I think that this gathering defiantely proved that music is as strong a communication as any language because these players tended not to speak English!!!!

What an amazing night!!!!!!

Love,
Stephen.

A Post from Stephen

2
Posted by Stephen Clark on May 30, 2008 – 11:02 am
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Hi guys. yes indeed I would like to discuss our Slovenian menus -

I am sure that any musician (or indeed anyone) who spends a lot of time travelling and working abroad will agree that food is an essential part in your enjoyment of touring. I know this may sound a bit crazy to some of you but I promise you its true! eating is one of the few times when you have a hectic concert schedule to just sit back with friends, relax and forgot about the stresses of performing. It is therefore essential and imperitive that you have good food to enjoy.

The Slovenian food was good!! Very good in fact!! However there was one slight problem. let me explain:

RESTAURANT 1 MENU
Chicken Noodle Soup
Salad
Scnitzel (fried cheese for veggies)
Cake

RESTAURANT 2 MENU
Chicken Noodle Soup
Salad
Scnitzel (fried cheese for veggies)
Cake

RESTAURANT 3 MENU
Chicken Noodle Soup
Salad
Scnitzel (fried cheese for veggies)
Cake

RESTAURANT 4 MENU
Chicken Noodle Soup
Salad
Scnitzel (fried cheese for veggies)
Cake
RESTAURANT 5 MENU
Chicken Noodle Soup
Salad
Scnitzel (fried cheese for veggies)
Cake

RESTAURANT 6 MENU
Chicken Noodle Soup
Salad
Scnitzel (fried cheese for veggies)
Cake

So I am sure you can see that as tasty as this traditional Slovenian meal is, it does end up a little bit wearing. but besides that we are still very grateful for all our Slovenian friends’ hospitality. they certainly added a bit of fun to the whole experience.

As a result of this, I would like to suggest that Flutewise endorses this particular menu and honour it with the title of “Official Flutewise Meal” and it should be served on every flutewise course from now on. just a suggestion. What do you think???

I am sure by now you have all recovered so what I want to know is what were the best bits about Slovenia -both at the convention and away from it????????

Now I do expect lots of replies here so get thinking!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Stephen.

(P.S. Glad to let you know that the trip to Slovenia did not interfere too much with the continuation of the storylines in Hollyoaks and thanks to the joyous wonders of Sky +, I am now fully caught up. For those of you who are not as fortunate as me then the weekly omnibus is on Sunday morning).