This week, I wanted to chronicle the life of one of the great American composers for flute, Robert Muczynski. Since playing his Sonata for Flute and Piano, Op. 14 during my undergraduate career, I have been fascinated by his music and always thought he was a bit underrated and ahead of his time. I hope you enjoy learning a bit more about him, as I did! Muczynski was born and raised in Chicago. His parents, of Polish and Slovak descent, were not musically sophisticated, but did notice his early sensitivity to music, which they encouraged by starting him on piano lessons when he was five. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, he nurtured a dream of becoming a concert artist. He earned his bachelors and masters degrees in music performance from DePaul University in 1950 and 1952, where he also studied composition. At the age of 25, Muczynski won national attention for a Piano Concerto commissioned by the Louisville Orchestra, with whom he performed it and later recorded it. Four years later, at the age of 29, he gave his debut recital as composer/pianist in New York City, with an all-Muczynski program at Carnegie Recital Hall. In 1956, Muczynski accepted an

Another sad day in the flute world, as we mourn the loss of legendary performer, teacher, and composer Katherine Hoover. Known as a pioneering figure in the field of flute composition, Katherine leaves behind a legacy whose shoes will be hard to fill. Katherine received her undergraduate degree from the Eastman School of Music in 1959, where she studied with flutist Joseph Mariano. Unfortunately, her composition classes left a bad impression. She commented, “There were no women involved with composition at all. [I got] rather discouraged – being the only woman in my classes, not being paid attention to and so forth.” After graduating from Eastman, she moved to Manhattan and spent the next ten years focusing on performing and teaching. In 1969, Hoover began teaching flute and theory at the Manhattan School of Music and continued her graduate studies, receiving her Master of Music in Music Theory in 1974. In 1972 Hoover had her first publication of a composition, Three Carols for choir and flute, published by Carl Fischer. In 1990, she wrote Kokopeli, a work for solo flute inspired by the Hopi tribe and the American Southwest. Hoover was very involved with women’s arts organizations and has worked

The flute world is mourning the loss today of legendary flute maker Jack Moore, who passed away yesterday. Jack worked for several different American flute companies in the 1970s and early 1980s before taking on his own flute making and repair shop full-time. He was a notoriously private person, and finding information to give a befitting tribute was a challenge, but I will do my best! Moore completed flute repair training with Powell Flutes before moving to Armstrong flutes in the mid-1970s, where he pioneered their original Heritage line in Elkhart, Indiana. These flutes were made to the same quality standards as Haynes and Powell flutes at the time: fully handmade instruments with impeccable mechanisms and a glorious sound. He worked alongside Tom Green, and these instruments became a prototype of the time for the standard of handmade American flutes. Green and Moore both used the Bennett scale and eventually branched off to make their own instruments. By the time Moore opened his own shop, his work as a flute builder was legendary; he pioneered the Murray system flute, a complicated method of flute building that take’s Boehm’s ideas in a different direction and never really caught on in the

One of the most fun parts of my job here is working with students of all ages, not just beginning middle schoolers! In my (just over) five years here, I have seen more and more adults express an interest in learning–either for the first time or after many years away–how to play the flute. I love working with adult beginners because usually, they are able to really hear and tell a difference between a student flute and something available in my shop, and I am able to fit the perfect instrument for their needs and budget. But what about beginning books? The books we start middle school students on are generally not appropriate for adult beginners. I have found a list, compiled by flute blogger Jennifer Cluff, about some good method books for adult beginners. Enjoy! Blocki Flute Method Book Two The award-winning Book II has been carefully designed to be versatile, so that it can be used after any beginning band method book. Each of the six key-based units (beginning with B-flat major) opens with a foundation page to be used throughout the unit, which includes scales, arpeggios, finger exercises, a flexibility exercise, and trills. Next, a new rhythm

I know there are probably a lot of you readers who are participating in State ISSMA Solo and Ensemble contest this weekend, and I wish every one of you the very best of luck! Luck doesn’t really have anything to do with it, though, does it? We all know that it comes down to preparation and practice–but how many of us know a piece like the back of our hand, only to get in front of an audience and freeze? It’s certainly a very frustrating situation, but rest assured it is also very common. Performance anxiety can manifest itself in many forms, from something as small and annoying as sweaty hands to full-blown panic attacks. I found a great article from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America with some helpful tips on managing stage fright that I thought I would share with you. This article was not written for musicians specifically, so I have added some of my own thoughts as well. 1. Shift the focus from yourself and your fear to your true purpose: contributing something of value to your audience.–You have made it this far, right? You are among the best student musicians in the state! And

This week’s blog is a guest post from The Flute View with Anna Luther on the benefits of slow practicing. Enjoy! At first blush, slow practice can feel torturous, no matter how long you’ve been playing music. Slowing your 16th notes down so they are played like 8ths–or somehow worse, quarter notes–can feel like the ultimate in excruciating practice. If you’re a beginner, you may assume the teacher thinks you can’t handle the “real” tempo of a piece. A little more advanced, and it feels like you’re holding yourself back by spending so much time under the final tempo. And I can tell you as a professional, there’s a real temptation to think you are “better than this” when a beloved mentor recommends you spend some time with your metronome set to what feels like an unreasonably low number. One of the greatest gifts my high school flute teacher gave me–aside from an enduring love of the Baroque–was a deep understanding of slow practice and intonation. Under her expert guidance, I spent months with Trevor Wye’s Tone book, a tuner, and a metronome set at 60 bpm. Slowing down, working in half step pairs of quarter notes, allowed me to