Symphony

Teacher spotlight: Karen Moratz

If you’re in the Indianapolis area–or even if you’re not!–there’s a good chance you’ve come across Indy’s flute GOAT, Karen Moratz. Not only is she an accomplished performer, professor, and entrepreneur; she also has an incredibly diverse background and set of interests! I was lucky enough to study with Karen as I got my Masters degree at Butler University. Please enjoy getting to know a little bit more about her. Karen Evans Moratz is Principal Flutist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Artist in Residence at Jordan College of the Arts at Butler University. She has been on the faculty at the Grand Teton Festival Orchestral Seminar and the Aria International Summer Academy, as well as Visiting Professor at Indiana University/Bloomington and the University of Illinois/Champaign-Urbana. Her cadenzas for Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G major have been published by Southern Music. She was the Coordinator for the National Flute Association’s Young Artist Competition from 2003-2008. She is a founding member of the Greater Indianapolis Flute Club (Indyflute) and of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. Ms. Moratz holds a bachelor’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory and a postgraduate degree from the Musikhochschule Freiburg im Breisgau. She was a member of the New

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Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra

Indianapolis is chock-full of amazing performing groups, and I wanted to take some time to highlight some of them in the coming months. This week, we’re talking about the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, a small chamber group based in the Butler University area, with a roster packed with amazing musicians. Founded in 1984 as the Musicians of the Cloister, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra first performed at Trinity Episcopal Church. In 1987, Maestro Kirk Trevor was appointed Music Director and Conductor, a position he held until 2015, when Matthew Kraemer took over. The ICO joined the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival as Orchestra-in-Residence in 2007 and remains in that position today. During this three-day immersive educational event, the ICO sponsors a nation-wide competition for the composition of new works for chamber orchestra. In 2012, ICO became the professional Orchestra-in-Residence for Schrott Center for the Arts at Butler University. Of course, since we’re all about all things flute here, let’s introduce the flutists of the group. Alistair Howlett is Principal Flute, in addition to being Assistant Professor of Music at DePauw and Professor of Music at Anderson University. Howlett has performed as Guest Principal Flute with the Indianapolis Symphony, East Coast and

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Spotlight: Dolce Suono Ensemble

Those of you who have been following my blog for any length of time know that one of my absolute favorite performers these days is Mimi Stillman–and it certainly helps that she is so unbelievably kind and gracious. We were lucky enough to host her at the shop back in 2014, and she blew everyone away with her effortless poise and technique. These days, she is keeping busy, both with her solo performances as well as her chamber group, Dolce Suono Ensemble. Dolce Suono Ensemble has been dazzling audiences and invigorating the music world since its founding by flutist and Artistic Director Mimi Stillman in 2005. The ensemble presents critically acclaimed chamber music concerts on its home series in Philadelphia, performs on tour, commissions important new works, makes recordings, and engages in community engagement partnerships. Dolce Suono Ensemble was Chamber Music America’s featured American Ensemble and has been highly praised by The New York Times as an “adventurous ensemble.” The Ensemble presents dynamic and innovative programming of repertoire that spans Baroque to new music, and their programs are built organically on culturally relevant themes, such as their recent Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Samuel Barber

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Cadenzas

If you are an at all experienced flute player, you have probably played a few cadenzas in your life. Johann Quantz defines a “cadenza” as “that extempore embellishment created, according to the fancy and pleasure of the performer, by a concertante part at the close of a piece on the penultimate note of the bass, that is, the fifth key of the piece.” No problem, right?? Thankfully, nowadays there exist many excellent published cadenzas for most of the popular concertos and solos. Interestingly enough, history has suggested that the trend of putting cadenzas to paper, rather than relying on musicians to improvise within certain constraints, began in the operatic setting, where less-than-favorable singers took a few too many liberties with their improvisation. Nowadays, the concept of a cadenza is generally rather simple: it stays in or close to the original key or the dominant, embellishes on common tunes and themes found throughout the piece, and is meant to give a bit of a finale to a piece, as it usually occurs in the last third. Players can generally have quite a bit of fun with embellishing notes, changing tempos several times, adding fermatas and other performance additions, and generally showcasing

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1949 Philadelphia Orchestra

This video from 1949 shows Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.  The flutist playing is William Kincaid, who was my teacher’s teacher.  Video here As I was watching the video, it struck me that Ormandy addressed the orchestra, saying “Gentlemen.”  In 1949, there were no women in this orchestra.  In fact, no woman held a principal position in a major orchestra until Doriot Anthony Dwyer in 1952.  She won principal flute of the Boston Symphony and played with them 1952-1990.  And Doriot studied with William Kincaid during WWII! Here is a link to a great article on Doriot.

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