Being Asked to Do an Interview with Karl Kraber for the New York Flute
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The New York Flute Club N E W S L E T T E R December 2004 A Conversation With Karl Kraber Interview by Carol Wincenc eing asked to do an interview with Karl Kraber for the New York Flute Club was a task I readily welcomed. Fritz (as he is affectionately called by his many dear friends and colleagues) and I have multiple common grounds, though when I first met him in the mid-’60s, when I was a teenager, I had Bno idea of the critical way in which he would shape my future. In a late October phone conversation we spent hours talking animatedly about his New York origins and personal flute history, our shared pasts, and his plans for the future. CAROL WINCENC: Fritz, my first hometown, Buffalo, NY. I was still in impressions of you are indelible. You high school and wasn’t sure what had loomed as this charismatic, vivacious hit me! Your quintet was producing flute master, swirling with energy like a music that I was not at all familiar spinning top, gesturing and vocalizing with, and all I knew was that I wanted during the many coachings that I had what you had—radiant enthusiasm for with you nearly 40 years ago in my (Cont’d on page 4) PHOTO: HENRY GROSMAN In Concert KARL KRABER, flute Michael Rogers, piano; Browning Cramer, violin; Alicia Edelberg, viola; Michael Finckel, cello Sunday, December 12, 2004, 5:30 pm CAMI Hall, 165 West 57th Street Sonata in G Minor, Op. 2, for flute and continuo.................. Pietro Locatelli Sonata in F Major, Op. 2, No. 5, NOTE: CONCERT AT CAMI for piano with flute accompaniment ..................................... Muzio Clementi The December concert will be at CAMI Hall. Adagio Cantabile from Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 13 .... Ludwig van Beethoven The tickets were incorrectly printed with last (transcribed by Kraber for alto flute and piano) year’s December concert location. Threnody for Flute and Piano (1991) ........................................Kent Kennan Dance to an Ostinato for flute and piano (1992) ......................Kent Kennan I N T H I S I S S U E Barcarole et Scherzo, Op. 4 (1902) ........................................ Alfredo Casella A Conversation With Karl Kraber .. 1 Chorale Prelude “Wir gläuben all’ an einen Gott,” BWV 680 ......... J.S. Bach Interview by Carol Wincenc From the President ..................... 2 Largo from violin/harpsichord Sonata 5 in F Minor, BWV 1018 ..... J.S. Bach Seasonal Gemütlichkeit (both transcribed by Kraber for flute/alto flute and strings) Member Profile ........................... 3 Quartet in A Major for flute and string trio ........ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Don Hulbert (transcribed by Franz Anton Hoffmeister from the piano sonata, K.331) Announcements CAMI concert venue .......................... 1 Program subject to change. Call for December refreshments ....... 2 Flute Happenings ............................... 3 2 — NYFC Newsletter Seasonal Gemütlichkeit by Jayn Rosenfeld ear Friends: THE NEW YORK FLUTE CLUB INC. D 2004–2005 I hope many of you will come to our next concert to hear Karl Kraber and friends, and to meet and greet club mem- Board of Directors bers. December feels to me like a time when one might want Jayn Rosenfeld, President to celebrate the calmer virtues and gifts of the season: old- Ardith Bondi, First Vice President fashioned chamber music, with a proper party after the Katherine Fink, Second Vice President Barbara H. Williams, Recording Secretary concert (consisting of baked goods and drinks provided in Don Hulbert, Membership Secretary From the part by YOU, whosoever wishes to contribute!), and the late James Blair, Treasurer President afternoon friendship and camaraderie we have come to enjoy. And, speaking of late afternoon friendships, I have known Rochelle Itzen Seth Rosenthal our soloist of the month since college, and call him “Fritz,” as do all his friends. Svjetlana Kabalin Rie Schmidt Early on, we gathered at least once in his Greenwich Village apartment on a college Fred Marcusa Patricia Spencer Patti Monson Stefani Starin break, and listened to his father, a well-known folk-singer, perform informally for Nancy Toff all assembled. We played together in school, but really it was ages ago and I can hardly remember! In our early 20s we found each other again at a Rampal master- Advisory Board class in Nice, an idyllic and inspiring time. Some of the other flutists present were Jeanne Baxtresser Robert Langevin Alain Marion, who just dropped in, Robert Aitken, and Edward Beckett, nephew of Harold Jones Gerardo Levy Samuel and a phenomenal flutist. (He played the whole first passage of the Bach Marya Martin Violin Concerto in E minor in one breath, a feat with which Rampal challenged all the big boys.) Back in New York, there was at least one evening of fluting, with Past Presidents adoring students gathered round, in which Sam Baron and Jean-Pierre played to- Georges Barrère .................. 1920–1944 gether, and sounded beautifully balanced. I take pride in having told Fritz that there John Wummer ...................... 1944–1947 Milton Wittgenstein ............ 1947–1952 was an opening in the Dorian Quintet, a position he secured and enjoyed for many Mildred Hunt Wummer ...... 1952–1955 years. When our kids were little, the Krabers came to visit us with their two girls, a Frederick Wilkins ................. 1955–1957 matched set to ours, in Princeton and New York and Vermont, though it is hard to Harry H. Moskovitz ............. 1957–1960 keep up with the sudden spurts of growth other people’s children seem to have; Paige Brook ........................... 1960–1963 one’s own grow more gradually. When we lived in France for a year, Fritz dropped Mildred Hunt Wummer ...... 1963–1964 Maurice S. Rosen ................ 1964–1967 in on us, and my daughter, fluent for having endured a year of French primary Harry H. Moskovitz ............. 1967–1970 school, took him around and gave him an eleven-year-old’s viewpoint on what’s Paige Brook ........................... 1970–1973 really important in Paris (clothing, bakeries, the river). Much more recently, I was Eleanor Lawrence ............... 1973–1976 happy to attend his 60th birthday party, and there was a lot of flute playing. Bob Harold Jones ........................ 1976–1979 Stallman and Sam Baron both contributed tooted salutes, a token of Fritz’s warmth Eleanor Lawrence ............... 1979–1982 Paige Brook ........................... 1982–1983 at establishing and continuing friendships. I think you will get a whiff of the joie de John Solum ........................... 1983–1986 vivre that permeates Fritz’s life and style when you hear him play on the 12th. Eleanor Lawrence ............... 1986–1989 Do you remember my last month’s musings on memory and performance? The Sue Ann Kahn ...................... 1989–1992 Borealis Quintet gave a splendid show in October by walking briskly out on stage Nancy Toff ............................. 1992–1995 at the beginning of their concert. They stood straight in a row facing the audience Rie Schmidt ........................... 1995–1998 Patricia Spencer ................... 1998–2001 and launched into a memorized and perfectly dovetailed performance of the Jan Vinci ................................. 2001–2002 opening movement of the Ibert Trois Pièces Brèves. The frontality and the security of their show was a message con brio! Newsletter See you soon. Don’t forget the cookies! ❑ Katherine Saenger, Editor 115 Underhill Road Ossining, NY 10562 (914) 762-8582 [email protected] Call For December Refreshments Alice Barmore, Layout/Production 125 Christopher St., #4H New York, NY 10014 Post-concert refreshments are needed for December 12th. (212) 675-9706 (phone and fax) [email protected] Please contact Jayn Rosenfeld (212-633-6260, [email protected]) if you can bring something. Requested items include www.nyfluteclub.org wine, soda, cheese, crackers, cookies, grapes, and other nibbles. ❑ Copyright © 2004 by The New York Flute Club Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. December 2004 — 3 FLUTE HAPPENINGS Member Profile High school: Horton Watkins High FREE to current NYFC members, this section lists upcoming School in Ladue, Missouri. performances by members; flute-related contests, auditions, and Don Hulbert masterclasses organized/sponsored by members; and brief descriptions of members’ new recordings, sheet music, and books. NYFC member inter- Degrees: Bachelor of Music (Aaron Send submissions to the Newsletter Editor. mittently since 1982, Copland School of Music at Queens membership secretary O CDECEMBER T O B E R 2 ’04 0 0 2 since 2004 College, 1981); all-but-dissertation for a DMA (CUNY Graduate Center). Sunday 4:00 pm Employment: Freelance DEC flutist and self-described technogeek Most notable and/or personally satisfying 5 UPTOWN FLUTES in a program of holiday music arranged by Pierce, (help desk analyst, software trainer, etc.). accomplishment(s): Successful recital Randalls, Jicha, Rice-Young, McGinty, Tucker, debut; continued concerts with his own Christensen. A recent recital/performance: chamber group, Traverse Music; • Ridgewood Library, Belcher Auditorium, On October 5, 2004, Don performed improvising his own flute part on songs 125 Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ • Admis- sion is free • Info, call 973-570-5600. baroque flute and led members of his written for a 2003 Broadway produc- chamber ensemble Traverse Music in tion of Explosion of a Picture, Descrip- Tuesday 8:00 pm “Musica Transalpina: J.S. Bach & the tion of a Memory at the Castillo Theater. DEC Italian Influence,” a program for the 7 Flutist BART FELLER will per- form Bach’s Cantata No. 209 New York Early Music Celebration at Favorite practice routines: Long tones (“Non sa che sia dolore”) and works by St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. holding notes at least 30 seconds, for Copland, Casella, Martin, and Handel with 10-15 minutes a day; articulation exercises assisting artists Linda Mark, piano, Robert Career highlight(s): Winner of the New including one recommended by Sandra Wolinsky, harpsichord, and Ilana Davidson, soprano. York Flute Club Young Artist Competi- Miller, in which the note is cut off by • St.