The New York Flute Club N E W S L E T T E R December 2002 TOMORROW’S CLASSICS: Recent Flute Pieces With Staying Power Interviews by Cathy Comrie

DITOR’S NOTE: Cathy Comrie interviewed , Harold Meltzer, David Macbride, and Harvey Sollberger by telephone in October. She asked them about the origins of the programmed compositions’ titles, the influences inspiring their Lewis Spratlan (b. 1940) E Mayflies (2000) work, and the effect of their experiences as performers on their style as composers. Short biographies of the composers not interviewed—David Froom, Matthew CATHY COMRIE: I read an inter- Greenbaum, and Frank Wigglesworth—can be found on page 7. view you did with Frank Oteri* where he was talking about composers who had nonmusical connec- tions to music, and you said you were very In Concert tied into biological processes. Is that why HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NEW you named your piece “Mayflies”? LEWIS SPRATLAN: I wish it were as com- Sunday, December 15, 2002, 5:30 pm plicated and interesting a reason as that. CAMI Hall, 165 West 57th Street In fact it was the title of the title poem in a collection of poems by Richard Wilbur that provided the text for the piece, so I Mayflies for soprano and flute quartet (2000) just stayed with it. Coincidentally, it hap- Lewis Spratlan Lucy Shelton, soprano; Flute Force (Rie Schmidt, pens to be one of a kind of large number (b. 1940) Wendy Stern, Patti Monson, Sheryl Henze, flutes) of pieces of mine that have animals, or at New York Premiere least non-human creatures of one sort or another, as their subject. I have a piece Harold Meltzer Rumors for solo flute (1999) called “When Crows Gather,” two songs (b. 1966) Patti Monson, flutes from a song cycle (Images) called “Moth” and “Oyster,” and a whole separate song cycle called Wolves. This is not something David Macbride Shadow for two baroque flutes (1993) (b. 1951) John Solum, Richard Wyton, flutes that’s particularly thematic to me in a (cont’d on page 10) *www.newmusicbox.org/first-person/jun00/index.html Harvey Sollberger To the Spirit Unappeased and Peregrine (1998) I N T H I S I S S U E (b. 1938) for flute and clarinet Jennifer Grim, flute; Meighan Stoops, clarinet Tomorrow’s Classics ...... 1 Four interviews by Cathy Comrie David Froom Duettino for flute and clarinet (2001) From the President ...... 2 (b. 1951) Jennifer Grim, flute; Meighan Stoops, clarinet New Music and New Poetry Member Profile ...... 3 Susan Deaver Matthew Dance Moments for flute and piano (2000) Greenbaum Judith Pearce, flute and Elizabeth DiFelice, piano How the Program Was Chosen ... 4 (b. 1950) By Patricia Spencer More Program Composers ...... 7 Three biographies Frank Lake Music for solo flute Wigglesworth Judith Pearce, flute Announcements (1918–1996) Flute Happenings ...... 3 2003 Flute Fair Update...... 4 Program subject to change. NYFC Annual Competition ...... 4 2 — NYFC Newsletter New Poetry and New Music by Jayn Rosenfeld ear Friends: THE NEW YORK FLUTE CLUB INC. D 2002–2003 Here’s a gesture of welcome to New Poetry and New Music—some early holiday cheer for you Board of Directors from Sailing Alone Around the Room* by Billy Jayn Rosenfeld, President Collins, our country’s poet laureate. I hope you Jan Vinci, First Vice President like these poems, and I hope to see you at our Ardith Bondi, Second Vice President gala holiday concert of musical discoveries on Svjetlana Kabalin, Recording Secretary December 15. Michele Smith, Membership Secretary From the James Blair, Treasurer President Happy Holidays — Jayn Katherine Fink Bärli Nugent Rochelle Itzen Rie Schmidt Sue Ann Kahn Patricia Spencer Robert Langevin Nancy Toff Patricia Zuber

Advisory Board Julius Baker Gerardo Levy Jeanne Baxtresser Laurence Libin Harold Jones Marya Martin

Past Presidents A Gift Denied Georges Barrère ...... 1920–1944 John Wummer ...... 1944–1947 [EDITOR’S NOTE:] Jayn Rosenfeld’s proffered Billy Collins poems, “Another Rea- Milton Wittgenstein ...... 1947–1952 son Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House” and “Piano Lessons,” are destined, Mildred Hunt Wummer ...... 1952–1955 for the time being, to be a gift denied. Last minute legal concerns about allow- Frederick Wilkins ...... 1955–1957 able interpretations of the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law (section Harry H. Moskovitz ...... 1957–1960 Paige Brook ...... 1960–1963 107, available to interested readers on pp. 5–6 of www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/ Mildred Hunt Wummer ...... 1963–1964 circ21.pdf) led us reluctantly to the decision that we should not print these Maurice S. Rosen ...... 1964–1967 poems without the explicit permission of the publisher. Better to err on the side Harry H. Moskovitz ...... 1967–1970 of caution than to risk the reputation (and treasury!) of the NYFC. So we will Paige Brook ...... 1970–1973 make do with synopses and a few excerpted lines. Eleanor Lawrence ...... 1973–1976 Piano Lessons* Harold Jones ...... 1976–1979 Eleanor Lawrence ...... 1979–1982 Another Reason Why I Don’t by Billy Collins Paige Brook ...... 1982–1983 Keep a Gun in the House*† “My teacher lies on the floor John Solum ...... 1983–1986 by Billy Collins Eleanor Lawrence ...... 1986–1989 with a bad back…” Sue Ann Kahn ...... 1989–1992 “The neighbors’ dog In this poem the narrator is a Nancy Toff ...... 1992–1995 will not stop barking…” Rie Schmidt ...... 1995–1998 slightly bewildered, motivationally Patricia Spencer ...... 1998–2001 So begins this Billy Collins poem challenged piano student who is Jan Vinci ...... 2001–2002 about a noisome neighborhood dog. learning to play a piece called “It The narrator tries to drown out the Might As Well Be Spring.” Billy Newsletter barking by playing a Beethoven sym- Collins’s description of the boredom Katherine Saenger, Editor 115 Underhill Road phony full blast, and then imagines and frustrations of this student and Ossining, NY 10562 the dog sitting in the oboe section of his indifferent teacher may remind (914) 762-8582 the orchestra, barking his part as if many of their childhood piano [email protected] Beethoven wrote it for him. Unfortu- lessons...or, as is more likely to be Alice Barmore, Layout/Production nately for the narrator, this version the case for NYFC members, provide 125 Christopher St., #4H of the Beethoven symphony appears a glimpse into the minds and les- New York, NY 10014 to conclude with an endless coda for son-time daydreams of our less at- (212) 675-9706 (phone and fax) solo barking dog. tentive flute students. [email protected] *Billy Collins, Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems, New York: Random House, www.nyfluteclub.org September 2001 † Copyright © 2002 by The New York Flute Club Inc. This and other poems by Billy Collins can be found on the poet’s website at www.bigsnap.com. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. December 2002 — 3

FLUTE HAPPENINGS Member Profile study, 1975-1982; Ransom Wilson at MSM, 1988-1990. Susan Deaver O CDECEMBER T O B E R 2 ’02 0 0 2 NYFC member since 1972 High school: Cheyenne Central High DEC Sunday 2:30 pm School in Cheyenne, Wyoming (class The Sonata Trio with Tamara Employment: Freelance 15 of 1969). Freeman, violin, Nancy Horowitz, flutist/conductor. flute, and Noriko Kubo, piano, will be playing seasonal works and trio sonatas by Recent recitals/performances: As a flutist: Degrees: B.M. (1975), M.M. (1976) in Quantz and Stamitz. concerts with the Pierrot Consort at the flute performance from MSM; D.M.A. • Emmanuel Baptist Church, 14 Hope Street (at 2002 C.W. Post Chamber Music Festival (1994) from MSM with a doctoral thesis E. Ridgewood Ave), Ridgewood, NJ • Admis- entitled “The Group for Contemporary sion is free • Info, call 201-444-7300 or email at Long Island University (LIU) this summer, Nancy at [email protected]. and a performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Music from 1962 to 1992.” Concerto No. 2 at St. Peter’s Church at O C T O B E R 2 0 0 2 Citicorp Center, NYC in September. As Notable and/or personally satisfying JANUARY ’03 (i) Her combined a music director/conductor: Brahms’ accomplishment(s): careers as a freelance performer (as a con- Saturday 8:00 pm Academic Festival Overture, Mussorgsky’s JAN ductor and flutist) and teacher (as a facul- Night on Bald Mountain and Rimsky- 4 Zara Lawler, flute, will perform ty member of C.W. Post/LIU, SUNY Stony works by Roussel, Liebermann, Korsakov’s Scheherazade with the SUNY Brook and MSM Preparatory Division); Meltzer, Corigliano, and Copland in a St. Stony Brook University Orchestra (on Paul’s Festival of the Arts recital with Colette (ii) the successes of her former students, Nov. 12, 2002), and a program of Valentine, piano, and Mary Ellen Callahan, some of whom have continued their soprano. orchestral music influenced by Japan studies at MSM and Eastman School of • St. Paul’s Methodist Church, So. Broadway and China with the C.W. Post Orchestra Music and gone on to professional music and Division Avenue, Nyack, NY • Admission at LIU (on December 9, 2002). $6 • Info, 845-352-1795. careers, and others who have continued Career highlight(s): A 1972 fellowship to to keep music as an important part of Sunday 8:30 pm Tanglewood where she performed in their lives though not pursuing music JAN the Fellowship Orchestra conducted by professionally; (iii) being a musician in 12 Michael Parloff will perform works by Martinu, Spohr/Mozart, Leonard Bernstein (Mahler Symphony NYC working with so many wonderful Debussy, Beethoven, Takemitsu, and Jolivet No. 9) and Seiji Ozawa (Mahler Symphony colleagues and students. in a recital with guest artists Mariko Anraku, No. 1); being principal flute of the harp; Ken Noda, piano; Nick Eanet and Favorite practice routines: Moyse tone Juliette Kang, violins; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Washington Chamber Symphony at the and Jerry Grossman, cello. Kennedy Center in Washington, from studies, Taffanel and Gaubert 17 Daily Studies and a balance of etudes, orches- • Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, 154 West 1981 until the organization’s demise in 57th Street (at 7th Avenue), NYC • Admission 2002; tours to Europe in the 1980s with tral excerpts and preparation of reper- $35 through CarnegieCharge (212-247-7800) or the Manhattan Woodwind Quintet and toire for upcoming freelance orchestral online (www.carnegiehall.org); $15 students/ and chamber music performances. senior tickets available at the Carnegie Hall box the Washington Chamber Symphony; office • Info, contact MidAmerica Productions substitute flutist/piccoloist on Broadway at 212-239-4699 or www.midamerica-music.com. Taking care of her champion bor- since 1990 at Phantom of the Opera. Hobbies: der terriers, Jasper and Lindy; maintain- Current flute: Gold-plated Muramatsu ing her website (www.susandeaver.com). Flute Happenings Deadlines (c. 1978) and Haynes wood piccolo Issue Deadline Mail date (c. 1973). Advice for NYFC members: January 2003 12/12/02 12/28/02 Be actively involved as much as possible February 2003 01/16/03 02/08/03 Influential flute teachers: Eugene Foster, in music. Embrace opportunities to per- March 2003 02/20/03 03/15/03 April 2003 03/20/03 04/12/03 1970-1972; Julius Baker masterclasses, form and study as many types of music May 2003 04/03/03 04/26/03 both as a participant and as an assistant as possible—solo, chamber and orches- (in 1984); Harold Bennett at the Manhat- tral. Broaden your musical horizons by tan School of Music (MSM), 1972-1975; going beyond the printed flute solo and Harvey Sollberger at the MSM, 1972- know the whole piece, whether it be for C L A S S I F I E D 1975 (contemporary music); Thomas flute and piano or a flute part within a Members may advertise in this section for $10 for Nyfenger, masterclasses and individual chamber or orchestral piece. ❑ up to 320 characters/spaces. Your ad should be submitted by hard copy or email. Name and phone number are required. Deadline is the same as for Flute Happenings submissions. Ads must be paid for in advance. Make checks payable to the New York Flute Club and mail to the Newsletter Editor. 4 — NYFC Newsletter

Harold Meltzer (b. 1966) How the December Program Was Chosen Rumors (1999) by Patricia Spencer he December program has been organized with the idea of presenting some recent CATHY COMRIE: Why did you Tworks that flutists “in the know” consider to be good candidates to become classics title the piece Rumors? in the repertoire. Naturally we know we are putting ourselves in the line of fire by doing HAROLD MELTZER: It is, this—we are sure that each of you will have a special favorite, alas, undiscovered by among many other things, an our selection process! If indeed this is the case, we invite you to tell us about it, and we homage to one of my composition teach- will add it to the list for future consideration. ers from when I was in graduate school, The procedure we used was to email approximately 20–25 flutists who play a lot of . Martin wrote a piece for new music, and invite nominations from them of pieces written in the past 20 years that Robert Dick about 25 years ago called they thought were likely to become “classics.” Nominations were also invited from all Conspiracies. And Conspiracies is a play board members. The committee which met to narrow the list down to the final program on words in several different ways. It choices was comprised of Jayn Rosenfeld and myself, with Rie Schmidt and Kathy Fink sounds ominous, and yet it is derived as invaluable telephone consultants. from the Latin conspirare, to breathe to- It would of course be impossible to adequately represent all the excellent pieces gether. It’s a multiple flute piece, and it’s written for our instrument in the past 20 years. We are truly living in a period of won- a pun on the idea that several flutists drous blossoming of flute repertoire. If in coming decades we can continue inspiring would be breathing together at once, or composers as we have in the past few decades, the flute will have a repertoire compa- one live player and several prerecorded rable to that of the violin, or piano, or voice, for this era. This can certainly not be said flutists would be. of earlier periods—think of our frustration at having no Mozart sonatas except those So Rumors similarly comes from a written when he was so very young, or of how wonderful it would be if we had a big Latin and Italian derivative, rumorese. Stravinsky duo for flute/piano or several solo pieces by Bartok! Rumorese in Italian are noises, yet it The richness of choices from the past two decades made our selection process sounds much more ominous, just like easier: there was no possibility of trying to be inclusive or even representative. The only possible goal would therefore be to select a combination of pieces that interacted well with conspiracies. [As for] the noises involved, each other, using contrasts of style, instrumentation, and mood, to build a program with I use a variety of extended techniques a sense of excitement. This is what we have tried to do, and we hope you enjoy it! which are at some intersection between A list of all works nominated for this program, plus information about publishers, music and noise in each one of the four will be available at the concert on December 15. ❑ pieces of the set.

NYFC Flute Fair 2003

SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2003 9:00 am–7:00 pm NYFC ANNUAL COMPETITION Masterclass: The Flute Fair will Union Theological Seminary The winners will receive monetary awards feature flutist Robert Aitken and and a performance at the Competition 100 Claremont Avenue composer Henry Brant. Aitken will Winners’ Recital at CAMI Hall, 165 W. 57th (between 120th and 122nd Streets/ host a masterclass and perform Street, on Sunday, April 27, 2003. Broadway and Riverside Drive) Brant’s new composition, Ghosts Application Deadline: and Gargoyles. Those interested in FEBRUARY 21, 2003. participating in the masterclass should send resume and tape or Exhibits: Inquiries regarding exhibits will For details and application, see NYFC website (www.nyfluteclub.org). CD no later than Jan. 31 to: be answered by Exhibits Coordinator Rebecca Quigley at: Katherine Fink; 61 Ridge Road; Required piece: Sonata by Paul Hindemith, Valley Cottage, NY 10989 [email protected]. first movement only, to be played from memory, plus all movements of another Student Flute Ensembles: Please check the NYFC website piece of your choice. It is not required to The Fair will also feature student —www.nyfluteclub.org— play the piece of your choice from memory. flute ensembles. Those interested in for details and updates. Competition Coordinator: performing should contact Stefani Patricia Zuber Starin at [email protected] by Katherine Fink, Flute Fair Chair 152 West St.; Closter, NJ 07624 Jan. 15. ([email protected]) [email protected] December 2002 — 5

CC: I’ve heard two movements, “Trapset” bass flute. Or in the piccolo piece, “Focus and “The Heaven of Animals,” from Patti Group,” where at times the music retreats David Macbride (b. 1951) Monson’s recording. You wrote these for into whispers and buzzes and then comes Shadow (1993) Patti, didn’t you? back into full throated flute sounds. HM: I wrote all four of the pieces for her. CATHY COMRIE: I spoke with CC: I’ll also be talking to Lewis Spratlan, John Solum (who commis- CC: What are the other two? with whom you studied. Was he one of sioned Shadow) before talk- HM: They are “Bel Canto” for bass flute, your mentors? ing to you, and he said that which is the last in the set, and also a very HM: Well Lew certainly is one of them; though Shadow was written for two ba- short piccolo piece called “Focus Group.” he was my undergraduate teacher. And roque flutes, he thought the piece was not I spoke with him on the phone yesterday at all influenced by the Baroque style. And CC: How would you describe the compo- and I saw him three weeks ago, so I’d he mentioned that he had gone to you sitional style of Rumors? have to say he was one of my mentors. So even before you had started composing HM: What unifies the four pieces aestheti- were both of my graduate school teach- [Shadow] and played abstract sounds on cally is that I started each one with the ers at Yale, Martin Bresnick and Jacob the Baroque flute for you to hear... idea of the techniques involved. Then I Druckman. , Jonathan DAVID MACBRIDE: It was that session tried to hear what notes, what combina- Kramer, and I had some other teachers…. for Shadow with John and Richard tions of melodic runs or harmonies (ver- [Wyton] that got me thinking about mak- tical sonorities) would sound good within CC: So what are your compositional in- ing different timbres the focus of the the confines of any given technique. spirations, musical or nonmusical? What piece. Unlike the modern flute, Baroque Sometimes the answer would be gives you ideas? flutes seem to have a different color for microtonal, or sometimes it would be HM: Most of my inspirations are very each note—depending on what key you tonal, or non-tonal. specifically musical. are playing in. To play flat notes in tune, So I let the techniques guide me aes- you have to change your embouchure, thetically and I made choices within that, CC: Are you thinking in terms of the per- which [changes] the timbre. So through- but they are stylistically diverse in a way. son you are writing it for? out the piece the flutes play in different The common principal is that they are HM: Very clearly. I [typically] work very keys to exploit the difference in color. guided by the technical features of the closely with [the performer] in coming In general, I’m very interested in color; instrument. up with the music. it’s part of the language we have today. The pieces [in Rumors] are so “out So when John asked me to write this CC: I’ve read that outside of being artistic there” that I would not have tried to do piece, I wanted to know more about the director of and composing for the group them unless I had Patti as a willing part- instruments themselves. [Now I think the Sequitur, you have written theater music ner in experimentation. I feel the same piece] works better on two Baroque flutes for Off Broadway, Shakespeare and Com- connection with the individual perform- than it would on two regular flutes. pany, and Syracuse Stage. Do you have a ers in a piece I’ve been writing for cello theatrical aspect to your music? and in another one I’m writing now for CC: John had sent me your CD of the Duos, and it was interesting to listen to HM: Yes and no. I mean all music really guitar. When I work with the performers the other pieces and hear your use of can- should be dramatic or it’s in real trouble from my group Sequitur, it’s really easy ons, unisons and things like that. How anyway. But one of the things that moti- because I know them—not only the mu- would you describe your general compo- vated me to find these techniques in the sical abilities, but the personalities. sitional style? first place was theatrical. DM: I use traditional techniques, which I’m always looking for ways to un- CC: It’s a very theatrical group, isn’t it? you mentioned—canons and various imi- derscore music in the theater, for ways HM: We are committed to doing mixed tations. I used canons to get two very to write real music that has textures that media work. Some take to it perhaps equal parts; it’s really not a first and sec- are diaphanous and transparent, so that better than others, but by now we’re ond part that are primary and subordi- it can go on at the same time as dialogue pretty much primed to play almost any nate. In other compositions there may without interfering with it. Music in which kind of media presentation. not be canons, but I’m always thinking the sound comes and goes. Then you can in twos. I think it’s about the highest num- follow what’s going on on the stage and CC: Do you perform yourself? HM: I try not to. I haven’t always escaped ber I can deal with. [Higher than that], at the same time follow what’s going on it. I have played piano in public probably relationships get complicated; talking gets in the music. three or four times in the last five or six complicated. Life forces seem to exist as And sometimes that leads you to find years. I used to be a bassoon player. ❑ opposites, so I generally think [in terms ways of producing sounds that don’t last, of] opposing pairs, opposing forces, op- like the percussive sounds of “Trapset,” posing ideas. The counterpoint can be or ways to continue multiple through- Recordings: CRI one of ideas and lines, or one of totally lines at once, where each line comes and Music: www.sequitur.org different ensembles, of noises versus goes and has a sound that is in question and unpredictable like in “Bel Canto” for (cont’d on next page) 6 — NYFC Newsletter

CC: Were they your mentors? [like] The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, MACBRIDE (cont’d from previous page) DM: was professor emeritus Grateful Dead, all that sort of thing. As a more traditional sounds, or of by the time I got there, so I didn’t [for- kid, I was a big Who fan for many, many many different elements. So I’m in- mally] study with him. But he was very years. I lived in Berkeley, California [then] terested in those pairings in general. much a part of the and all these bands would come in with Shadow seemed to lend itself to that. scene, [even] in his 80s. I would see him all that energy. [You’d be] taking a classi- walking on Broadway on the West Side cal piano lesson, but at the same time CC: Tell me about the title… and I’d always chat with him. One day I [you knew that] this was the music that DM: The title was taken from the name visited him at his beautiful apartment on really mattered. And I think [these influ- of the artists’ colony where I wrote the Riverside Drive. He invites me in and says, ences] have manifested themselves in my piece—Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, NY. “I’m not sure quite why you want to see music, not literally as rock music, but in Yaddo was apparently from the daugh- me.” And I said, “Well I just thought may- the directness and energy [of my ap- ter of the founder of the colony—her be I could get your advice, you’ve had so proach]. Rather than trying to write in all word “yaddo” meant “shadow.” And so much experience about all sorts of things.” these styles, I’ve tried to incorporate some that’s why it’s titled Shadow. Something And his reply was, “In the night sky, look of these sensibilities…into what I do. ❑ about the play of light on water and also up. Find your star and follow it.” the concept of the Shadow. It turns out CC: That’s amazing. that that family had some rather dark oc- Recordings: Nova Recordings; Albany Records; DM: Yeah, and I’ve always remembered currences in its life too, so there’s that various compilations element of Shadow as well. that. It was very practical. And I always Music: www.dlmacbride.com remember his name starts L-u-e-n-i-n-g, CC: John also told me that you wrote an which is right before Macbride, and usu- ensemble piece called Yaddo for 16 flutes. ally there wouldn’t be any other names What is that piece like? right after Luening, so if I’d see a directory DM: Actually he helped put on the pre- I’d look at my bio, which was printed much like everybody else’s—blah, blah, miere with the New York Flute Club [in Harvey Sollberger (b. 1938) December 1984]. I wrote the piece in blah, blah. His was “Started writing in To the Spirit Unappeased 1983. I was just sitting in my cabin there 1905, still doing it.” [Laughs.] I thought and Peregrine (1998) at Yaddo thinking about the sound of all that was very telling. He also said that com- these flutists playing in a semicircle. Again petitions were for horses, not composers. CATHY COMRIE: What is the I got into shadow-type patterns and imi- significance of the title “To the tation, and moving the sound of the flute CC: Do you have any compositional in- Spirit Unappeased and Peregrine”? across the ensemble so there was a sort spirations, musical or nonmusical? HARVEY SOLLBERGER: It comes from of stereophonic effect. At one point, they DM: Oh, all the time. Observing nature, T.S. Eliot’s extended poem Four Quartets. all go up to a very high D, which was observing people, observing anything and And there’s kind of a tie-in with the dedi- sort of risky, almost suicidal. everything. I think that’s what compos- cation of the piece, because the work was ers do, they observe with their ears, but written for a concert in honor of the 60th CC: Absolutely. Pitch-wise. they also observe with all their senses. birthday of , one of my DM: Pitch-wise, and whether or not they’d I’ve certainly listened to composers of oldest friends and musical collaborators, hit it. Very much shot in the dark, a leap many traditions and also music of many going back to those fabled 1960s. He had of faith. But it actually worked out quite traditions. I am Eurasian. My mother was been extolling the Four Quartets one of well. There’s a lot of energy there; they born in China and my dad was born in the last times I’d seen him, so I just hit this note and then they come down the . I’ve always felt that my thought I’d take a look. It was a very ripe from it. I was very pleased. music, including Shadow, was influenced hunting ground for titles. I found several I’d like to say that I’m so indebted to by Eastern thought and music. It’s not likely candidates and finally narrowed it John Solum for not only all his support literally Chinese-sounding, if there is such down to that—which is, I think, a refer- of my music, but his interest in commis- a thing, but I think it is a kind of a hybrid ence not too oblique to the dedicatee. sioning new composers. As many people of Western practices and instruments with know, he’s best known for his work in an Eastern approach in terms of color and CC: Many of your works do have literary early music, and particularly Baroque timelessness. references. Is this deliberate? flutes and running the Connecticut Early John Cage really opened the door for HS: Not in any sort of planned or con- Music Festival for many years with Igor all of us…. I’m very enamored of many scious way. But I do read a lot and really Kipnis, but he’s always seen a connec- jazz artists from keyboard pianist com- appreciate words, so you’re right, a lot of tion between the older instruments and poser Bill Evans to Miles Davis to my titles have been drawn from things. new music. He’s commissioned many Coltrane, to Ellington to Mingus. These In the case of To the Spirit I just went look- composers—, Otto Luening… are great creators. I’ve been influenced ing in a particular place and found some- teachers I had at Columbia University…. by popular music that I grew up with, thing that I thought was really appropriate. December 2002 — 7

In other cases, it works the opposite way—I remember something I’ve read, recently or long before. I wrote a piece More Composers on the December Program for cello and two percussionists called The Two and the One, which is the name of a book by Mircea Eliade, the Univer- David Froom (b. 1951) sity of Chicago historian of religion. That Duettino (2001) piece really grew out of the title, in a way. Very opposite from To the Spirit, David Froom was born in California in 1951. He was educated where the title came wagging along after at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of the piece. Southern California, and Columbia University. His main compo- sition teachers were Chou Wen-chung, , CC: What you don’t see when you hear Alexander Goehr, and William Kraft. His musical compositions—including To the Spirit is that every measure is in a works for large ensembles, chamber groups, voice, and solo instrumen- different tempo—over a dozen, for sure. talists—have been performed throughout the United States and Europe. What made you decide to do that? His music is available on CD on the Delos, Arabesque, Centaur, and HS: I think because there was some sort Sonora labels, and much of it is published by MMB Music, Inc. of mathematical ratio between the tempi Mr. Froom has received many awards, grants, and fellowships, which in some way related to the including commissions from the Fromm and Koussevitzky Foundations, intervalic relations of the piece. a Fulbright grant for study at Cambridge University, and fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Festival and the MacDowell Colony. He serves CC: Is it serial? on the National Advisory Board for the League of Composers/ISCM and HS: I would call it a permutational piece. on the board of directors for the New York New Music Ensemble. He is I think twelve-tone music is a very a professor of music at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he has specific set of music that uses or employs taught since 1989. A works list and audio samplings of his music are a very specific set of procedures. But available at www.smcm.edu/~dfroom/. ❑ there’s a whole range of chromatic mu- sic using all twelve tones of the chro- matic scale, or sometimes less, or some- Matthew Greenbaum (b. 1950) times more that uses procedures akin to Dance Moments for flute and piano (2000) what twelve-tone music does but perhaps in an expanded way. My own name for Matthew Greenbaum was born on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. that is permutational because it, just as While still in his teens, he began private studies with Stefan twelve-tone music does, uses permuta- Wolpe, whose influence remains indelibly etched in the tions of sets—that’s going on here too. younger composer’s works. After Wolpe’s death, Greenbaum But the permutation may extend to things continued his studies with Mario Davidovsky and subsequently received like tempi and tempo relations. It’s still a Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center. something different from the total or in- The composer’s works have been praised for their “subtle grafting of tegral serialism of the 1950s where that an almost Cubist sense of counterpoint onto a natural lyricism.” Much was first explored. of Greenbaum’s recent music takes as a subject, with the The different tempi were kind of an intention of capturing its particular combination of errant nostalgia, experiment because I’d never written or surrealism and rapid urban rhythm. These works include on the river seen anything like that. I was intrigued the shadowy group for baritone saxophone and piano, Into the Clefts of by the idea of a kind of continuity that Streets for clarinet, cello, piano and marimba (written for the New York was based on the sort of quantum leaps— New Music Ensemble), and East River for violin and piano. Crossing that there’d be a certain beat at one tempo Brooklyn Ferry, a monodrama for baritone and six instruments, was and then the music would just by a kind commissioned by the Fromm Foundation and premiered in February ’98 of quantum leap with no time in between, by Parnassus with New York City Opera baritone, Victor Ledbetter. be in another tempo. Greenbaum is currently on the composition faculty at Temple This grows out of my being a per- University’s Esther Boyer College of Music. He has been the recipient of former. To me the idea of sort of shifting numerous awards, including grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim from one level of time passing to another Foundation, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund, the New York Founda- is a very distinct feeling that one has tion for the Arts, and has received commissions from the Meet the performing. So I really came to this not Composer/Readers Digest Commissioning Program, Parnassus, Network out of some abstract kind of business of for New Music. Additional biographical information can be found at pushing numbers around, but I came to www.networkfornewmusic.org/greenbaum.html. ❑ it from a kind of feeling that these tempo (cont’d on next page) (cont’d on next page) 8 — NYFC Newsletter

the pulse. But this is not really something that is apparent to the listener, nor need (MORE COMPOSERS, cont’d from previous page) it be. In a way I’m almost working on the performer—as if the performer is my Frank Wigglesworth (1918–1996) instrument and he or she is acting on his Lake Music for solo flute or her own instrument. The piece too, has 60 measures in it Frank Wigglesworth began writing music when he was eleven, and that’s a very conscious allusion to and has composed in virtually all genres. His output includes the fact that it was Charles’s 60th birth- three symphonies as well as numerous concertinos and works day that was being celebrated. That was for string orchestra—most notably Summer Scenes, for flute, a kind of premise right at the beginning, oboe and string orchestra (1951); the striking Three Portraits of 1970 and then that there was some sort of over- (the third movement of which is an Adagio in Memory of Henry all proportional relation between the Cowell); and Sea Winds of 1984 (his only twelve-tone work). He wrote length of the measures. I did toy with virtuoso solo instrumental works—for instance, Wind Shadows, for the idea of perhaps having each measure flute (1983), as well as much chamber music, song cycles and a one- reflect that year of his life, like measure act opera—the atonal and rhythmically complex The Willowdale 9 would be Charles at 9. Then I gave up Handcar (1969), based on the book by Edward Gorey. He wrote because I realized I didn’t know that sacred and secular choral music—masses and anthems, as well as much about him [laughs]. Police Log of the Ipswich Chronicle (1986), based on clippings from the Chronicle, illustrated by twelve original ink and watercolor drawings CC: The early years, especially. by Anne Parker Wigglesworth. And he wrote incidental music for HS: Yes. Besides there might be things theater—Between the Atoms and the Stars (1959) and Hamlet (1960), as revealed that he wouldn’t want revealed well as ballet—the acclaimed Young Goodman Brown (1951) and [laughs]. So I just left it more abstract. Ballet for Esther Brooks (1961). His music is published by the American But that would be an interesting kind of Composers Alliance and Merion Music of Theodore Presser. piece to write. Maybe I could write He was a performer (violinist, violist, and choral conductor), teacher something like that about myself… and administrator, most notably at the New School for Social Research, “Confessions in Music”…. where he was chairman of the music department for more than 20 years. Wigglesworth was a composer, but his role as a tireless champion of CC: Hearing you talking about your new music cannot be overemphasized. He was an advocate for young playing brings up one of my other ques- composers, beginning with his work as editor of New Music Edition tions: has the tremendous amount of and New Music Recordings, and as an organizer of New Music Concerts. flute playing, conducting or teaching you He was also an influential board member of such organizations as have done had any impact on what or Composers Recordings, Inc. (CRI), the American Composers Alliance (ACA), how you compose? Composers Forum, Inc., among many others. For more than 30 years HS: Yes, all the time. And I can’t imagine he lived on Downing Street in Greenwich Village, where he and his that I’d be the same composer if I didn’t wife, the artist Anne Parker, raised their two children. ❑ have one foot and usually one-and- nine-tenths feet embedded in perfor- mance. Very much from the beginning, everything I wrote sort of grew out of the physicality of performing. I can’t cut ing of almost a kind of musical Cubism myself loose from that, and I don’t want SOLLBERGER (cont’d from previous page) where it would indeed be a continuity, to. As an exercise it might be interesting but it would be a continuity of a very to write a piece that would just be a kind contrasts produce certain physical fractured, oblique sort. Again this didn’t of abstract pattern piece. And I do like and sensory changes in me as a just grow out of [an interest in] abstrac- such pieces. They offer a different kind performer projecting myself into the role tion, but out of a sense I had of what the of space into which you invest your per- of player, which I thought would maybe physicality of this would feel like. forming persona and they offer different result almost in a kind of Cubist continu- things to discover. But basically, I’m at- ity. Cubist painting is representational, but CC: It actually doesn’t sound disjunct. tracted to music that is sort of physical it sort of shows you on one pictorial HS: It doesn’t. and gestural. plane, elements that are taken from the Those of us who are performers have same subject may be shown from differ- CC: And one would think it would. an odd job sometimes. We get paid for ent angles. So the nose will be seen from HS: You could make the fact that there getting up in front of people and dis- a 90 degree side angle and the eye will were different tempi more apparent just playing our emotions. It’s [even] socially be seen from the front and these are all by perhaps emphasizing the notes on the acceptable. I think a lot of very good per- sort of juxtaposed together. I was think- beat, so there’d be a stronger sense of formers might get very tied up in knots December 2002 — 9 at the thought of having to give a speech on who I want to be so I keep trying in a different way and maybe develop in public, yet they’ll get up and play their other things. certain strengths that a performer wouldn’t instruments and reveal everything about develop; certainly composers vary. themselves because it’s something they’ve CC: Are you influenced by other compos- There’s quite a wide range between focused on…. ers of this time, or do you have mentors pieces of mine. Part of that is just the I should say that the piece that I’ve that you recall from back when you were passage of time. The things I’m interested just finished, which is for solo clarinet, in school? in now aren’t the same things I was in- carries the idea of To the Spirit a little fur- HS: Both I think. Certainly some com- terested in 10 or 30 years ago. ther. There are only three tempi, so in posers who influenced me when I was And yet at the same time, granted the that sense it’s a little simpler. Still every young, [they] sort of hang around. I al- differences, I [still] sort of see my finger- measure is in a different tempo from the most feel them looking over my shoul- prints in everything, [though] I don’t know one that preceded it. In this case, each of der. Nothing quite as spooky…. if anybody else does. It’s not so much the three tempi is associated with a par- that I favor certain sonorities or certain ticular kind of emotional or affective or CC: Who were they? kinds of transitions or something, it’s gestural kind of character. Within each HS: Primarily Stefan Wolpe and [Edgard] almost more in what I would call the character type there is a lot of range; these Varèse. And it’s no coincidence that both metabolism of the music. Metabolism as characters are not one-dimensional. were people I knew when I first moved it refers to the life—the functioning of And again, there is an experimental to New York. It was one of the most chal- the organism. Life Study and Angel and side to this: I’m writing what I call “an lenging and exciting times of my life in Stone are very different pieces, though essay before a passacaglia,” because this terms of all the changes and new influ- both are kind of sprawling and chaotic, piece is a passacaglia. And so much con- ences—a sense of unbounded possibil- and Aurelian Echos written maybe seven temporary composition becomes sort of, ity. Wolpe was in his 60s and Varèse was or eight years after those two, is almost from my point of view, trivialized, ups already in his 80s, I think. Neither one neoclassical. Those are pretty different and downs of trying to connect up to was the Michael Jackson of contempo- indeed. things I think are not particularly inter- rary music or anything, but they were esting, pop music and so forth, I get more people of integrity, people to model your- CC: And yet it seems like the more a person and more conservative. self on. To me, as a young man, as a plays your music, they do get a sense of the So I’ve just written my first passacaglia. young composer, the fact that they had language and it becomes more familiar. It’s a set of variations on a theme of Anton come through life and worked for so HS: Yes. I had a student…he did an ar- Webern’s—how retrograde and square many years and maintained their ideals ticle on me for the second edition of the can you get? Somebody would really have and their integrity, was encouraging and Grove Dictionary of Music, and he to work hard to go further than that. an example. pointed out that there was a lot of hu- And that’s actually a piece that’s based And then there are many other com- mor in my music, which I think is really on triads. Each of the passacaglia notes posers, many of whom are working to- the case. It’s very hard for me to just write generates a triad. The kind of triad and day. I feel in various ways, I’ve picked a piece that knits its brow all the time— the inversion of the triad that occurs is up things from Charles Wuorinen and usually there’s some lighter element. based on the tempo and the number of Mario Davidovsky and cer- beats in the bar, so there is a constant tainly, , Donald Martino. CC: It seems like you dedicate much of relation between those things. And yet Sometimes they’re almost very little your music to specific people and have there are certain kinds of free floating things—the way a painter might paint an formed relationships with performers over notes that inflect the triads so it doesn’t ear in just a certain way because Degas the years. Is this something that is impor- come out sounding like Bach or Samuel painted it that way. Or an apple, let’s say, tant to you? Barber. I don’t know, it comes out sound- after you’ve seen some of Cezanne’s HS: Yes…I was very lonely as a child for ing like my music, but underneath it it apples. It’s not that you are doing the reasons that don’t necessarily need to be sort of tickles me that there are these kind same thing, but you are changed. Cer- gone into. I think a lot of artists probably of triads. And sometimes all kinds of tri- tainly the kind of inspired wackiness in spend quite a bit of time by themselves. ads; major, minor, diminished, augmented Ligeti’s music is something I’ve found For me, performing…being with musicians and even some 7th, 9th, and 11th and stimulating and liberating. I’ve performed who shared the same kind of mania and 13th chords. the music of every one of these compos- passion and then specifically performing ers—either on the flute or conducted. So with people was a kind of discovery of CC: One thing that I have always it’s like I’m a wire and these currents pass community, and almost of family, in a way. found about your music is that it seems through me and leave some residue. Certainly working in New York, there like you do not have one style. A lot of There are many composers who don’t was just this great sense of we were all your pieces sound so different from each perform or who haven’t performed, and fighting this fight for serious music and other. What influences do you have in “Vive la différence.” In a way, if you don’t new music. The community of people I composing? have that direct performing influence, or interacted with there and performed with HS: I sometimes jokingly say this is my if it’s not something that’s part of your there was just one of the nicest that you inconstant character that I can’t decide everyday life, you might approach music (cont’d on next page) 10 — NYFC Newsletter

“Personae,” has two parts, “The Poet” and SOLLBERGER (cont’d from previous page) SPRATLAN (cont’d from page 1) “Musicians.” Both of these are almost postmodern pieces in that they are could encounter. It’s kind of inter- conscious way, it’s just sort of extremely referential. The first one is a esting because music can some- fallen out that way. So, here’s an- kind of nostalgic look back on the times bring out competitive elements and other animal, “Mayfly.” Beat era—Jack Kerouac and so on. negative things. But when I think of the Tongue and cheek suggestion of the Beat really fine performers I knew, there was CC: Was it written for a specific group? poet with the beret and the scarf around nothing but mutual regard and support. It’s an unusual ensemble—four flutes his neck, Greenwich Village and all that. Probably a little like soldiers—you de- and soprano. And that has a kind of sleazy samba qual- pend on each other in battle. Whatever LS: Yes, it was a commission from the ity to it. You can almost hear bongos in your differences are, you have that bond flutist Alex Ogle. He had the notion that the background. that you have kind of put yourself on the it would be a multiple flutes piece, with And then the other one, “The Musi- line in doing some difficult and demand- each of the flute parts being played by a cians,” is full of quotes. This being a flute ing things. flutist from one of the so-called Five Col- piece, it’s just loaded with things stolen In that sense, I found a kind of com- leges. , where I teach, is from Bach flute music. It’s really heavily munion that was much more than doing part of a consortium that’s made up of collaged, in all sorts of different keys bat- business. Thinking of someone like Pat Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and tling with one another. To counterbalance Spencer…to work with her is to have the Hampshire Colleges and the University the Bach, the very end of it is the open- best [brought out] in you. I have memo- of Massachusetts Amherst. ing from “Thus Spake Zarathustra” for ries not just of Pat but of so many people I more or less on my own decided to four flutes, [hums “Bo, bo, bo, bo-ba, in New York. It’s kind of interesting that do it as a quartet, and at first it was just thum, thum, thum, thum, thum, thum] the finest musicians are usually the ones going to be an instrumental piece. At including the timpani and everything who are the least competitive. It’s not that some point I wanted something else. I done with tongue slaps. So it’s a riot of they are arrogant, but just [that] they’re thought at first about adding a cello part. quotes. too busy…applying themselves to the Then Alex made the suggestion of a voice I think the three tankas and the two music to be worrying about other stuff. part, and he actually specified my wife pieces from this larger piece which is So in that sense, a lot of what I’ve Melinda Spratlan, who is a wonderful called Personae are the general excep- written has been something, I hope, that soprano and very devoted to new mu- tion to the larger qualities I described as will challenge performers and reward sic—I’ve written many, many pieces for being advanced, quite non-tonal, highly them at the same time. It will stretch them her. I kind of liked that idea. Having de- chromatic. and stretch their capabilities and be worth cided that, I then went on a poetry hunt it. Because there’s nothing more dispirit- and came up with Richard Wilbur. So CC: What kind of musical or nonmusical ing than working awfully hard on a piece that’s how the whole thing evolved. influences inspire your work? and then feeling there’s not much there. LS: It’s a very, very wide range. I’ve done So I’m hoping when people make a com- CC: How would you describe the piece a lot of vocal music, so individual poems mitment they do experience, in the pro- compositionally? are a source. My next piece after May- cess or at the end, a sense of reward and LS: I’d say it’s in a pretty advanced tonal flies [Of Time and the Seasons, written for something opening up to them…and the language. For the most part, pretty highly Lucy Shelton] was drawn from an anthol- pleasure of being able to share that or chromatic and edgy, but with some very ogy of Finnish poems. I’ve been quite pass it on to the audience. conspicuous exceptions. The piece is in interested in Finland for a long time, for To the Spirit, I should say, looks like a four large movements, each one of them no reason I can particularly understand. very serious piece, but I think of it more quite substantial, with three very brief It’s a wonderfully odd sort of place. Tan- as a kind of what the French would call movements sandwiched in among them. gos are a huge rage there, even in the jeu d’esprit [a witty trifle]. It’s not a gag And those brief movements are like little furthest reaches of the frozen tundra piece by any means. There should be a tiny aphorisms—no more than a page [where people dance in] little huts with sense of…inspired conversation like two each, and they are drawn from a subset iron stoves. I’m especially interested in a multilingual people trying out all kinds of poems from the Richard Wilbur col- lot of the younger Finnish composers, of languages and punning and respond- lection called Three Tankas. A tanka is a Magnus Lindberg and Saariaho. ing to passages back and forth…. ❑ Japanese form—a little bit like a Haiku but with extra lines. The tankas are much Some of my music is fairly political. more tonal, although I have to use that In Memoriam was written on the occasion word carefully. Two of them are very of the 500th anniversary of the Colom- bian conquest. It has a lot of Mayan texts Recordings: CRI, New World, Nonesuch heavily 5th-related, and one of them has Scores: Peters, ACA, or contact Harvey Sollberger a lot of 9ths in it. They’re very static, and in it and also texts by Pablo Neruda, be- at the University of California at San Diego. the language is a little bit separate. moaning the consequences of the geno- There are a couple of other exceptions cide that occurred. It was premiered in to mention. The third of the big pieces, the 1992–93 season at the time of the December 2002 — 11

Columbus orgy that was going on. And it many, many more performances and people. And you can’t explain it well if was sort of another view of that whole commissions—it’s been great. you don’t understand it well. That’s one situation. The irony of it is that the thing I aspect of it. And then I’ve learned a lot wanted most out of it hasn’t happened: from my students too. They can even be CC: Other influences? the opera that won the Pulitzer Prize has very elementary students, but sometimes LS: [It’s different for each piece.] Natural still not been staged. It won for just a a kid will come in and just stumble on things are quite important to me. When concert performance and no company something that he doesn’t know enough Crows Gather is very much a wintertime has picked it up yet. I’ve been peddling not to do [laughs]. I’ve stolen a lot from piece. It’s full of wintry images of one it like crazy. The New York City Opera my students that way. sort or another. In some cases quite did do a reading of the second act in its overtly so, and in other cases quite pri- Showcasing American Opera series in CC: Teaching is supposed to be reciprocal. vately. And then I have two operas. May, and it was very well received and it LS: Yes, I definitely think it is. was extremely well done. But again, it CC: You won the Pulitzer for one of them, was just a concert performance. There CC: Who were your mentors? Life is a Dream. are a lot of complicated reasons for that. LS: Well, my two main teachers, and ac- LS: Yes, a couple of years ago. [And the Most opera companies, if they’re going tually, technically speaking, the only Pulitzer was] its own kind of influence! to put on a new work, like to be respon- people I studied composition with, were Life is a Dream was drawn from a great sible for having commissioned or some- Mel Powell and Gunther Schuller, both 17th century Spanish play of the same how brought it about, or having it fit into of them at Yale. Gunther taught at Yale title (La Vida el Sueño). What was attrac- something thematic within their seasons, only one year—it was the year before he tive to me about it was the striking [mo- and so on. was tapped to become the president of dernity] of its sentiments—community, the New England Conservatory. I stud- and the whole fuzziness between dreams CC: Opera is a business I guess. ied with him in my last year of graduate and reality. Even though it was written LS: And it’s a cutthroat business, too… school. Before that, I worked with Mel hundreds of years ago it has an extremely which I have a certain amount of sympa- Powell, who was really my most impor- timely kind of resonance to it. Besides, thy for. It’s enormously expensive and tant teacher, I think. it’s just fabulous drama; it was an opera people have got to cover their butts. But But there have been many other im- waiting to be written. it’s still a little disappointing. portant mentors whom I didn’t [formally] study with. I took a number of courses CC: And the other? CC: Have your experiences as a perfor- with Yehudi Wyner, who was an impor- LS: I just finished a commission from the mer, teacher and conductor had any in- tant figure in my education. And Robert San Francisco Opera for a chamber op- fluence on what and how you compose? Bloom, the great oboist—he played un- era that’s going to be premiered next year. LS: Very, very much so. I feel that my der Toscanini in the NBC Symphony— A one act opera on a sci-fi topic, about a composition really is generated by per- was just phenomenal, an off-the-chart woman scientist at a biotech firm who is formance. I’m very much a performer amazing musician. Of course I studied retiring and interviewing each of her three myself—I’m an oboist, or a sort of “has- oboe with him, but I just learned so much clones, looking for a successor. been” oboist. Been playing forever, con- more that…just the whole idea of build- ducting forever, and I’m extremely deeply ing a phrase…very, very profound things CC: Who wrote the story? attuned to what it means to play a piece. which involved so much more than just LS: It’s by a wonderful playwright by the Not just per instrument, but what it feels playing the oboe. ❑ name of Constance Congdon. I commis- like sitting in an ensemble—the way in- sioned her to do the libretto for it. It in- struments combine. volves issues of not only cloning but also I’m very aware of what I ask players Scores: www.lewisspratlan.com bioengineering. The scientist meets a to do—both in terms of doing “normal Rentals: G. Schirmer, Shawnee Press creature she made with genes from many things” and particular ways that I stretch Recordings: Opus One, Gasparo, CRI (this year, other species spliced into him, in addi- them. I know what it means to stretch Vocalise with Duck) tion to the usual complement of human players, what it counts for. I’m very, very genes. She thought he was a lab experi- keen about the way instruments and ment that had been aborted, but it turned voices combine.  out that he actually came to full term. He On the conducting front again—hav- spends 20 years of his life looking for ing conducted enormous amounts of mu- An advocate of new music, Cathy Comrie her and finally finds her. sic— I have absorbed a lot of it from that performs with Chicago Chamber Works point of view. What does it take to make and Catapult, a new music ensemble that CC: When will this be performed? this piece work? So that’s very much on she co-founded in 1995. She has had ra- LS: In the spring of 2004, in San Francisco. my mind when I’m composing. dio performances on both the Irish Radio From the teaching point of view, Network and WFMT in Chicago, and has CC: Has the Pulitzer Prize changed you? teaching forces you to understand music recorded works of John Eaton and Harvey LS: Yes, [laughs] it sure has! I’m getting well, because you have to explain it to Sollberger. The New York Flute Club Park West Finance Station P.O. Box 20613 New York, NY 10025-1515

December 15, 2002 concert

Sunday 5:30 pm • CAMI Hall, 165 W. 57th (across from Carnegie Hall) HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NEW Some of New York’s best-known flutists perform a program of recent compositions that may be destined to become classics in the repertoire.

rd 83 Season From the Greetings! This month we have our by- 2002–2003 Concerts Editor: now-traditional December celebration of contempo- rary composers and new music, “Highlights of the October 27, 2002 • Sunday 5:30 pm New.” The program, organized by Patricia Spencer ROBERT STALLMAN, flute in a selection process she describes on p. 4, November 24, 2002 • Sunday 5:30 pm promises a New York premiere (Louis Spratlan’s STEPHANIE MORTIMORE, flute and piccolo Mayflies) as well as authoritative interpretations of works specifically written for the players for who December 15, 2002 • Sunday 5:30 pm From the HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NEW will be performing them. Cathy Comrie interviewed Editor four of the composers: David Macbride, Harold January 12, 2003 • Sunday 5:30 pm Meltzer, Lewis Spratlan, and Harvey Sollberger. As ULLA SUOKKO, flute and theatre you can see, they turned out to be a talkative and articulate bunch. February 23, 2003 • Sunday 5:30 pm Learning about the literature and poetry underpinning these ROBERT DICK, flutes composers’ compositions left me with the feeling that I might be March 29, 2003 • Saturday 9:00 am–7:00 pm overdue for some continuing education in the humanities. Readers FLUTE FAIR with guests Robert Aitken, flutist, similarly inspired can jump-start this process by turning to p. 2 of and Henry Brant, composer and conductor Union Theological Seminary, 100 Claremont Ave. this newsletter, where Jayn Rosenfeld points us to favorite poems by Billy Collins, the current poet laureate of the United States. April 27, 2003 • Sunday 5:30 pm December’s Member Profile subject is Susan Deaver, a freelance 2003 NYFC COMPETITION WINNERS flutist and conductor who studied with Harvey Sollberger in the May 11, 2003 • Sunday 4:00 pm early ’70s. 2003 NYFC ENSEMBLE PROGRAM Kaplan Space at Carnegie Hall Hope to see you at the concert. Concerts are at CAMI Hall, 165 West 57th Street (across from Carnegie Hall), unless otherwise noted. Best regards, All programs are subject to change. Tickets $10, only at the door; free to members. For more information, Katherine Saenger visit the NYFC website at www.nyfluteclub.org or call (212)799-0448. ([email protected])