Action Moves People United

By  Lois Herbine

Last month, I recorded a single solo flute track as a contribution to the Action Moves People United project, sponsored by the United Nations, UNESCO.

I played an improvisation realized by pianist Catherine Marie Charlton. Both the flute and piano accompany a poem entitled I Cried by Karelle Wade, which is about war and unity, spoken in the perspective of new parents.

Action Moves People United CD

This project is a CD compiled of poetry and prose tracks, read by spoken word artists and accompanied by musical instrumentation. The central message is world peace through a call to action to promote positive change. Catherine’s improvisation was influenced by the text. The music starts remotely and builds in strength and resolve as the poem first laments the problems in the world and then finds hope in the future. It is read in Cuban/ Spanish by Kenya Autie and in English by Alex Metnick.

My Preparation

Catherine recorded her piano contribution separately and then uploaded her audio file onto a sharing service so I could download both her part and the spoken word file and play through my computer and speaker while I practiced.

As a classical flutist I prefer to read a part instead of improvising it, so Catherine composed the flute solo by recording a separate track, and then I transcribed it using music writing software.

Following the flow of the text, I began the flute softly playing triplets against the piano’s duplets to provide an unsettled feeling. Then as the voice become more confident, so did my flute by getting fuller in sonority then popping the octave while the piano part filled out by adding chords in the left hand. I practiced in the style of an improvisation, sometimes using rubato to pull away from and then rush to sync up with the piano.

Recording Day

I spent an hour at Eastroom recording studio where recording engineer Drew Taurisano placed the piano track through the one sided headphone and recorded my flute playing against it. Using the headphones in this way allows me to hear my part clearly, while fitting it in with piano. This gives me the ability to assess subtle color changes in the sound. After Drew submitted the raw flute file that afternoon, one of our producers, Rupam Sarmah of India, compiled the music tracks and sent the recordings back to the spoken word artists to rerecord, as the music will naturally propel the expression of the voice.

You might be wondering why the producers selected a classical flutist to play an improvisation? One of the plans for the album – and eventual film – is to pair up artists from different genres and around the globe for collaborations that go beyond politics, religion, and borders. Other flutists that will be joining me on this musical journey for peace are new age flutist Wouter Kellerman from South Africa and Powell artist and rocker Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fame.

Live Concert and CD Release

The album is available for pre-sale during the Nelson Mandela International Day festivities in Washington, D.C., July 15 through 18, 2016.  As part of this celebration, I will be performing with an African band, Sharon Katz and the Peace Train, and an American Roots artist, Grant Maloy Smith, at the Washington Monument on July 17, 2016.  For concert information, visit Lois Herbine’s blog http://www.piccolois.com/blog/2016/6/28/sharon-katz-and-the-peace-train or events page http://www.piccolois.com/events/.

Some of the other collaborating artists on this project are Julian Lennon, Kathy Sledge, Annie Haslam, John Wetton, Patrick Moraz, Dan Aykroyd, Tony Levin, Steve Walsh, Ricky Kej, Amy Otley, and Janice Ian. Action Moves People United is produced by Kevin Mackie, Krista Wallhagen, and Rupam Sarmah.

New Devienne Recording with Aldo Baerten

Aldo Baerten

We had a chance to catch up with Powell artist Aldo Baerten, who recently released a recording of François Devienne’s Six Concertant Duos, Opus 5 for flute and viola.  This new recording is unique in many ways – it is the first recording of this particular opus number, and it is also available exclusively online.  Baerten shared his thoughts on the decision to veer away from physical CDs for this recording.  He said, “More and more, young people download music to an iPad or iPod.  It’s a modern way to sell music.”  He says that if it works well to sell exclusively online, it could be the route he takes with future recordings.

Curious about the repertoire, we asked Aldo how he came to choose the Opus 5 Duos.  He shared that he and violist Diederik Suys had been friends for many years, having performed for 25 years together in the quintet ARPAE (flute, harp, and string trio).  Baerten and Suys decided to play through all of the Opus 5 Duos, which then led them to decide to move forward with a recording.  Since Suys has had his own independent recording label for 10 years, it seemed like a natural choice for the duo to record and sell online.

Aldo mentioned that his friendship with Suys also led to the choice for a recording location.  This new recording took place in a chapel where Suys has his own concert series, and which Aldo notes, “has very good natural acoustics.”  Aldo also told us that there is quite a lot of repertoire for flute and viola – and he has played quite a bit of it!  He said that he and Suys will also make another recording of flute and viola repertoire in the future.  As for the instrumentation, Aldo shared his thoughts, noting that the flute and viola duo is “Very classical, very transparent, and a very natural way of writing.  The flute carries the melodic line, and the viola serves as the bass.  As a flutist, you don’t have to force or exaggerate, and the two instruments blend very well together. “

Finally, we asked Aldo about performing with Suys since they has been friends for so long.  Aldo told us, “It feels like coming home when you can record with someone whose playing you know.  You can enjoy playing together, and you don’t have to search – it comes in a very natural way.”  This sounded wonderful to us! 

The new CD is available at http://www.ut3-records.com/records/ut3-024.  For more information on Aldo Baerten, visit his website at http://www.aldobaerten.be/index.php and his Powell artist profile page at https://powellflutes.com/academy/masters/aldo-baerten.

Christina Jennings: Recording the Music of George Rochberg

Christina Jennings, Lura Johnson, and George Rochberg.

Part II

Preparations

This summer I have been very busy preparing for my Fall recording session. This music, which is very dear to my heart, will be Volume I of music for flute by the American composer, George Rochberg. In addition to actually practicing this music- which has moments of extreme technical demand and lots of juicy choices to make about sound color and style- I am involved in the large scale transcription project of Rochberg’s Caprice Variations for solo violin. Each of these miniature movements are based on the Niccolo Paganini theme we flutists know from the etudes (Caprice 24, book 2). Each of Rochberg’s caprices is done in a different style- Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Bartok, and many of them quote moments from his own Concord Quartets (#4-6). These Quartets were pivotal compositions in the 1970s and 80s and were composed for my father’s string quartet. I grew up with this music through the string quartets, but also through my father’s performance of the Caprices. Here are some of his notes and also a link to his youtube version (Andrew Jennings Complete Caprice variations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIj4mwvTuCI)

 …

1970 was a pivotal year in Mr. Rochberg’s life in many ways. He was working on two large-scale commissions, a solo piano work for Jerome Lowenthal which became the Carneval Music, and a new string quartet for the Concord Quartet debut recital. He was struggling in both works with  a multi-lingual musical vocabulary which drew as much on the musics of the past as those of the present without the use of overt quotation. From the vantage point of 2010 it is hard to understand (or remember) just how radical this idea was in 1970 (which is a measure of just how potent and successful his revolutionary work was to be.)  It was an enormously difficult challenge that was taking vast amounts of time to work out. At the same time his teen-aged daughter was on the crux of her own dilemma. A gifted dancer as well as a brilliant intellect, she had been apprenticed to the Buffalo Ballet  and was being groomed for a career in dance. The pressure on her to make the decision between scholarship and dance was enormous at such a young age and she asked her father for advice. Never one for half measures, George decided that he would attend every one of her performances of Nutcracker in Philadelphia in order to see just how she might fit into this lifestyle so he could better advise her.

He described to me returning home every evening exhausted (and he never could stand Tchaikowsky to start with) flopping down on his couch, where he did most of his composing, and only having enough energy to produce little sketches for the larger works. These sketches took the form of solo violin miniatures where he was working out certain ideas, and as he wrote he began to use as a “springboard” the twenty-fourth Caprice of Paganini. He was intrigued not only by its compelling simplicity but also by the way that same music was reflected in  many other composers. That musical germ allowed him to find a bridge to Bach, to Mahler, Beethoven, Brahms and on and on.

By the end of some fifty Nutcrackers George had a sizeable stack of short sketches which allowed him to finish both the Carvneval Music and the Quartet in time for their respective premieres. (By the way, his advice to Chessie was not to pursue ballet and she went on to a brilliant academic career that has included the award of a MacArthur grant.)

After the success of the Quartet, George became the composer of the moment, his music was being played all over and there were many calls on him for new works. His publisher, on a visit to his studio noticed the stack of manuscript sketches and when George told him what it was, suggested that he might like to turn them into something publishable. In 1973, after polishing and reworking the sketches, they were published as the Caprice Variations for Solo Violin.

The works were not conceived in any was as “pedagogical” studies as some have thought, rather they are more in the style of the great “miniatures” tradition of the piano literature (Chopin, Brahms, Liszt come to mind.)

Jennings-Johnson Duo

The transcription process has been a creative nirvana as I make choices about how to best capture the composer’s intentions and also bring some of my own thoughts alive. Because I grew up in a family of violinists and am now married to a violist, string writing and technique is familiar. I have been able to use flute extended techniques to bring out some of the colors of the violin, including multiphonics, flutter tongue, jet whistle, and whistle tones to name a few. This project has followed me on my summer Festival hopping: first at Sarasota Music Festival where I debuted a few of the new transcriptions on Sarasota Public Radio, then at Greenwood Music Camp (in Cummington, MA) where I finished up the actual transcriptions. My family and I are currently enjoying an island off the coast of Maine where, while they sail and kayak, I am cleaning-up the transcriptions and actually practicing them! CU alumnus Mathieu D’Ordine has been putting the transcriptions into Finale, so we’ve been sending back and forth lots of drafts.

I look forward to rehearing with my amazing collaborators: Lura Johnson (http://lurajohnson.com/) and June Han (http://www.bowdoinfestival.org/ai_june_han.php)  and working with the incredible Grammy-nominated producer and engineer Judith Sherman (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Judith+Sherman)

Drafts of Caprice Variations used as scrap paper for 4 year olds!

Timeless: Kate Prestia-Schaub

This week, we had a chance to chat with Powell player Kate Prestia-Schaub about her new CD, Timeless.  Kate collaborated with composer and pianist Martin Kennedy, who joined the recording project as Kate’s artistic partner.  Timeless is Kate’s debut CD recording, but it has been in the works for over 10 years.  We were able to find out more about the history behind the recording when we spoke with Kate…

In 2002, Kate was ready to record her first CD.  She had all the repertoire lined up and began rehearsing with pianist, composer, and recording engineer Steve Kaplan in Malibu, CA.  About two weeks before the recording was scheduled to commence, Steve was killed in a plane crash.   She was heartbroken, not just because of the musical partnership – but he was also a close family friend.  Feeling the need to have space from her loss, Kate discontinued the work on this recording.

Shortly after the project was discontinued, Frederick Lesemann wrote Slow Music for Piccolo Alone for Kate, much to her surprise.  Dr. Lesemann was Kate’s orchestration professor at USC, and she premiered this piece on her final Master’s recital at USC in Los Angeles in 2003.  Slow Music is also included on a recording of Dr. Lesemann's works to be released later this year.  After hearing Kate perform at a NFA convention in 2005, composer Daniel Dorff contacted Kate with an idea for a new piccolo and piano showpiece he had started for her.  In 2009 Flash! was completed and premiered at the International Piccolo Symposium.  Flash! also won the IPS composition competition for 2009.  Finally, in 2010, Martin Kennedy contacted her with yet another newly formed idea for a piece!  Once Martin’s Desplazamiento was completed, it was premiered at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Festival in 2013. 

Realizing that Kate had accumulated three incredible new pieces for piccolo, and that they would become “timeless standards” in the piccolo repertoire, she came back to the idea of recording.  She pulled out some of the repertoire from the 2002 project, and the new pieces that had been written for her fit perfectly in the mix; better even than the original plan!   Kate also realized that she had found a monstrous pianist and good friend in Martin, and asked if he would come out to California and record the album.

Martin Kennedy came out to California from St. Louis this summer to record the CD with Kate.   With only a one-week time span in which to work, Kate and Martin were able to complete the project on time, before Martin’s return.  Kate told us that they were able to do a little bit of rehearsing, recording, and mixing each day.  The CD was produced and recorded by the incredible Peter Sprague at his studio in Encinitas. 

Looking back on the process of recording the CD, we asked Kate about the most memorable elements.  She told us, 

Martin brought a ton of energy to the project, and he has had a lot of experience in recording.  Being a composer, Martin was able to give me a bigger perspective on all of the pieces, which helped me grow musically.  We were able to get his piece exactly the way he wanted it.  It was humbling to have the opportunity to speak with all the composers; I could attempt to make all their music the way they wanted it – not just the way I wanted it.  I could also bring the music to life a little better because I knew the people it came from!”

The recording process also had a strong impact on Kate in the sense that she was able to truly reflect on her own playing.  She elaborated on this particularly monumental element of the process:

You’re your own worst critic.  You want to fix everything.  During the editing process, I listened so carefully to every detail – each rhythm, every interval, runs, expression markings, balance; everything! There is an appropriate amount of criticism needed to create a good product, but at a certain point, you have to stop picking everything apart, and just enjoy the music.  I had to learn to let myself be human.  There’s definitely a huge learning curve in the process – learning how much to fix and how to simply let it be.  Now that I have given it some space, and don’t have to correct anything anymore, I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Timeless is available through Kate Prestia-Schaub’s website,  CD Baby,  iTunes,  and  Google Play.

Preview the tunes on Kate Prestia-Schaub’s facebook page.  For more information on Kate, visit her Powell Academy Page, where you can also schedule lessons with her.