The Simple Attack
    Without the instrument, have the flutist take a breath. With the lips closed, have the student begin to blow a small amount of air (like blowing to cool a hot beverage) to let the air stream naturally open and form the aperture. Maintaining this natural aperture, have the flutist place the tongue in the aperture. Without moving the embouchure or tongue, the student should breathe in through the nose and then pull the tongue back in a horizontal motion and release the air through the aperture. Simply, the tongue releases the air. The teeth are separated, and the tongue goes through the teeth to reach the lips. Repeat using the headjoint or assembled flute. Once this skill is mastered, check the pitch of the attack with the tuner. There should be very little, if any, movement towards the sharp side of the pitch. This is the reason that many professional flutists use this type of tonguing to begin a phrase. Some flutists use this approach for all tonguing situations.
    There should be no movement in the lips when tonguing. If there is motion, then the tongue’s movement is too forceful. The movement of the tip of the tongue should be clear and rhythmic. There should also be no movement of the jaw when tonguing. The tongue can and should move independently. Use an anatomy book to study the relationship of the jaw and tongue. Often a picture is truly worth a thousand words.
    To accurately play repeated tongued notes, the embouchure plate must be firmly placed in the chin. If the flute is moving or bouncing in the chin, it is difficult to direct the air column to the same place on the embouchure wall each time the tongue releases the air. The left index finger and the right thumb maintain this steady position. Placing the right hand on the barrel to pull the flute into the chin is a good practice technique for the notes that can be played with only the left-hand fingerings.
    Once single notes can be played with this method, practice three notes followed by a rest on each note of a scale. To play musically, the first note will be the strongest (beat 1) and the third note, the softest (beat 2).

    For most flutists, developing this type of attack will take many repetitions until it becomes a habit. Practice tonguing on the same pitch for a while before embarking on scales where each articulation movement is on a different note. I did not learn to tongue this way and switched as an adult because I wanted to improve the quality of the beginning of the note and correct the intonation (sharpness) at the onset of the note. Patience or repetition was the key as it took me about six months to completely switch over.

Breath or Hah Attack
    Teachers often get students who only use the breath attack. This happens because it is difficult in a band classroom situation to be sure that each student is tonguing properly. Months may go by before someone notices that a student is not using the tongue. On the positive side, students  who have only used the breath or Hah attack, usually have nice sounds. This happens because the Hah attack separates the vocal folds (opens throat).
    Many passages in the solo and orchestral literature sound better when a flutist uses the breath attack. For example, Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune can be quite successfully begun with the Hah attack. Once again, the benefits from the Hah attack include a clarity of attack and improved intonation.

Multiple Tonguing
    Double- and triple-tonguing strokes are placed as far forward in the mouth as possible. For the back or secondary stroke use the word key. For the key stroke, think of the word dental. The combined strokes (thi and key) happen first in front of the teeth and then slightly behind the front teeth. Years ago, when the da-ga or du-gu was in style, the back stroke was placed quite far back in the mouth. Unfortunately, this distance between the da in the front and the ga in the back took too much time to execute, so tonguing sounded slow and laborious. Often flutists complained of the tongue becoming tired. With a thi-key stroke, the tongue is basically fluttering in the air stream at the front of the mouth. The thi or key interrupts the air stream just enough to stop the air for the attack. As with most technical matters, working in chunks provides the quickest results so practice TKTK, T rest many times on notes throughout the range. Most people have a tendency to play these five notes unevenly making a larger space of time between the first sixteenth and the second sixteenth. Great results will occur when you rush the second sixteenth, placing it closer to the first sixteenth. Actually, this is playing exactly in time in most cases. Practicing with a metronome ticking on all the sixteenths will improve this skill.
    For triple-tonguing, TKT, TKT is preferable to TKT, KTK because of the rhythmic implications of the meter and rhythm. However, practicing this technique has excellent ramifications for developing an even transition between the two consonants.

P or B Attack
    If you are having difficulty making the aperture in the lips smaller, practicing P or B attacks (where the lips begin closed) is an excellent exercise to develop this skill. Many entrances that begin p, pp, or ppp in the top octave are best played with a P or B attack.

Tonguing vs. Articulating
    I often start a masterclass by asking, “What is the difference between tonguing and articulating?” Usually there is silence followed by someone asking, “But, aren’t they the same?” Of course, the answer is that they are not the same. Tonguing is what flutists call the motion to use when looking at a passage and determining where to tongue and where not to based on the use of slurs. Articulating is putting life and energy into this motion to bring the passage to life. Most often this is accomplished by the increasing the speed of the air and the use of articulatory silences. Articulation is the goal.
    In the following example, the key to playing this common articulation pattern lies in the definition of the word staccato. Staccato means detached, not just short. That means there must be silence before and after the note. The silence before a staccato note means the note before the staccato is shortened.

    The next thing to consider is the two-note slur. Since the Renaissance (1450-1600) and certainly the Baroque (1600-1750), a two-note slur is played strong/weak or loud/soft. So, the first note is strong, and the second note is weak and shorter. The two staccato notes are played detached which means that they do not touch but have silence between them. Adding a smidge of color vibrato on the first note of a slur adds excitement, interest, and energy to a note. Think of color vibrato as a mordent of vibrato (faster). Once the passage has been executed this way, the distinction between tonguing and articulating becomes obvious.

Articulation Problems
    Usually where there is a problem, the issue lies not with the tongue, but with the air stream. Practice all tongued passages slurred first and then repeat tonguing on the air. To demonstrate this, have students play off-beats (1 play, 2 play, 3 play, 4 play). Notice how the quality of the attack and the note is much better than when playing on the beat. I think when playing off-beats, which is something flutists do much less often than playing on the beat, they prepare the air better than when playing on the beat. Adding playing off-beats into daily practice sessions for several weeks offers excellent benefits. 
    When working with any skill, recording, listening back, and evaluation is important. A recorder that can be played back at half speed amplifies the attack issues quickly and honestly – sometimes a bit too honestly!

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Reed Instruments
    Clarinetists and saxophonists frequently use an eee vowel shape while playing, while flutists rarely, if ever, use such a high tongue position. For clarinetists and saxophonists, the high tongue position helps create a sort of laser beam of air that is focused toward the opening between the mouthpiece and reed. Because the high tongue position is so common on those instruments, students more familiar with playing clarinet or saxophone often revert to that position on flute, which negatively affects their tone. Teachers can hear this when the sound either cuts in and out while playing, a sign that the tongue is getting in the way, or when the tone is extremely airy, yet the aperture and embouchure appear correct from the outside. A good fix for too high of a tongue position is to tell students to make the tongue like a carpet on the bottom of the mouth, ensuring that it is spread out and flat. Sometimes, thinking of a very open throat, like one is swallowing an egg whole, can help students find the correct low tongue position and open mouth shape. Thinking of creating space between the back teeth, as if baby carrots were lying between the upper and lower molars, can also help.
    The process of articulating also differs between reed instruments and the flute. Reed players articulate by touching the tip of the tongue to the tip of the reed. As a result, they often find the concept of articulating without touching a reed very different. Teachers should clearly explain how to articulate on the flute, whether advocating tonguing behind the teeth on the roof of the mouth or using forward-tonguing, and not assume that students will already know how to do this. Be very specific about which part of the tongue touches which part of the inside of the mouth. Sometimes, students will create all sorts of odd methods of tonguing if the procedure is not clearly explained, including sticking the tongue the whole way out through the lips, articulating with the throat, and even articulating by stopping the air between each note. 
    When clarinetists want to produce a warmer-sounding tone, they think of using cold air and vice versa. This is the opposite of how these sounds are produced on flute. Remind clarinetists of this when exploring tone colors or striving for a warm sound. Flutists frequently play with a warm tone, and clarinetists often struggle to produce such a tone. This can be practiced by noticing the difference between blowing cold air, as one would do to cool soup, and blowing warm air, as one would do to steam up a window.
    The way pitch is affected by range and dynamics is also opposite on reed instruments. Generally, when reed players play loudly, they become flat, while flutists tend to become sharp. The same is often true when playing higher. Where flutists tend to play flat in the lower register and sharp in the high register, reed instruments tend to have opposite intonation tendencies. Reed players who are playing flute often default to applying the pitch tendencies of their original instrument. Working with a buddy and a tuner to check the pitch of the notes in the chromatic scale can help clarify which notes are sharp or flat on flute.
    Finally, flexibility and the sort of pursing of the lips that are essential for forming flute tone differ from the lip shape for playing reed instruments. Saxophonists and clarinetists roll the lower lip under slightly to play, and oboists and bassoonists roll both lips in slightly to cushion the reed. Flutists do not roll their lips under at all to play. Teachers should use exercises that help students explore the flexibility of the lips. One strategy to help with rolling the lips out slightly is to light a candle and have students bend the flame without blowing out the candle. Another strategy is to remind the student that the air needs to pass over the smooth, inner surface of the lips, not the part of the lips where one would apply lip balm. Teachers should also model the shape of the lips in front of a mirror and have students imitate the position.

Brass
    For brass players, the major concern is this same flexibility and lip shape for flute tone. Brass musicians, especially high brass players, often tend to hold the lips rather firmly against the teeth and do not purse the lips out at all. They may even very slightly roll them in before buzzing (like saying em). Use the same strategies mentioned previously for reed players to solve this. 
    Brass players use either a slide or three or four valves and overtones or partials to produce all of the pitches on their instruments. When moving to the flute, these musicians may struggle to coordinate the right and left hands working together to produce notes. Have them practice by isolating two notes that are problematic and moving  very slowly between them. They should gradually increase speed, being careful that all fingers are moving precisely together. Additional finger independence exercises, like those in the first exercises in Trevor Wye’s Practice Book for the Flute Book 6: Advanced Practice, will help them isolate and strengthen specific fingers and practice moving cleanly among a variety of notes.
    When teaching slurring, teachers should bear in mind that trombonists do not slur on trombone the way flutists do. Because of the slide, trombonists tongue all of their notes, even if they appear under a slur, unless a slide is specified. They use a lighter legato tonguing, but that does not transfer to slurring on flute. Explain and practice the technique of not moving the tongue at all as they move between slurred notes. Trombonists may need to be reminded to slur without lightly articulating because they are accustomed to doing this when they see slurs.

Everyone Else: Percussion, Keyboard, Strings, Voice
    Most students coming to flute struggle to provide a small enough aperture to make a focused sound. While this is true of students coming from reed or brass instruments, it is especially a  problem for students who have never made an embouchure. Teachers should be prepared with multiple ways to teach the small aperture required for playing flute. Use a mirror and model just how tiny the aperture should be. Another option is to place cotton balls on a music stand and have the flutist blow the air so that only one cotton ball moves. If multiple cotton balls move, the aperture is too big and unfocused. Using tangible and visible strategies to make the aperture smaller are better than wordy descriptions.
    There is usually a discrepancy between students’ abilities to navigate fingerings and read music and the endurance and flexibility of their embouchure muscles. These muscles often begin to quiver while playing as fatigue sets in. Encourage them to practice in gradually increasing intervals to build endurance. During lessons, alternate between playing and other activities, like discussing the form of the piece, music history, theory, or other aspects of pedagogy, so they can play without fatigue.
    Percussionists, string players, and pianists may be new to the concept of breathing to play an instrument and will need to start with the basics as they learn to play the flute. Vocalists can apply breathing techniques that are part of healthy singing to playing the flute.
 
General Difficulties
    The asymmetrical position of the flute on the right side of the body is problematic for most people switching to the instrument. Spend time clearly explaining how to hold the instrument as well as posture, and hand position  Be consistent in enforcing proper positioning to avoid injury. Students should practice in front of a mirror and to watch for raised shoulders, awkwardly positioned wrists, and incorrect neck position (neck sticking out like a turtle, for example). They should also make sure that the body is at a 45-degree angle to the stand, and the flute is parallel to the stand. Students’ arms may tire easily until muscles are built up to support this correct positioning, so they will need frequent breaks and stretching.
    Teaching flute to students who play a different instrument can be extremely rewarding. Generally, they are very motivated and have chosen to learn the instrument for the sake of being able to play flute or for the opportunities it will provide, such as being a more versatile jazz musician or a more effective band director. Having a basic knowledge of the common differences between flute and other instruments will help teachers guide these students more effectively.

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Flute in Pit Orchestras
    Many Broadway orchestras include a woodwind section that is comprised of doublers who can play on multiple instruments. On other occasions, the music supervisor, producer, composer, or orchestrator may seek a traditional full orchestral sound, or possibly a very distinct ethnic flute inflection. In these cases, they may write a flute-specific part.
    Broadway musicals that feature a dedicated flute book include Cinderella, The King and I, South Pacific, The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Les Misérables, Beauty and the Beast, Miss Saigon, Aida, Ragtime, Mary Poppins, and Finding Neverland, to name a few. There has been a trend in revivals of classic musicals to utilize their original orchestrations which usually featured more performers and more classically orchestral instrumentation than subsequent incarnations. There are also a number of new musicals that use international flutes.
    Even parts written specifically for a flutist, however, usually call for the player to double on other members of the flute family. This often goes beyond the standard orchestral doubles of piccolo or alto flute. In Wicked the flutist plays recorder, tin whistle, flute, piccolo, and alto flute, while The Lion King calls for thirteen flutes, including several wood flutes in various keys, South Asian bansuri, Eastern European pan flutes, and a South American bass pan flute (the Toyo, which is 4 feet tall), in addition to flute and piccolo.
    There is only one designated flute book on Wicked (in the Playbill, Helen Campo is billed as flute), but there is another woodwind player who also plays some flute. Wicked has four woodwind books: flute, oboe/english horn/bass oboe, Bb and Eb clarinets/ bass clarinet/soprano sax, and bassoon/baritone sax/clarinet/bass clarinet/flute.
    The Lion King has two woodwind players, but David Weiss is the only one with a designated flute book (in the Playbill, he is billed as wood flute soloist/flute/piccolo). The other woodwind player mostly performs on clarinet and bass clarinet but also plays some flute and is billed as flute/clarinet/bass clarinet. For flutes in different keys, Weiss devised a system where the music is notated with a double staff. The top staff has the transposed part, and the bottom staff shows the concert pitch, making the intended sound clearer for both the woodwind specialist and the music supervision team. This system has been adopted by many productions worldwide since he began using it in the 1990s.
    In general, blending and listening in a pit orchestra can be a challenge, since the space is usually acoustically dead. Every player has a microphone that has been chosen and balanced by the sound designer, and the sound levels can be adjusted in real time by the production audio engineer. Pit musicians balance what they hear happening around them with what is being broadcast through the house audio. To help with this, they can calibrate what they want to listen to through personal sound mixers that are used on many Broadway shows. This personally adjusted audio can be heard by the musician on nearby speakers or headphones.

Helen Campo and Wicked
    Wicked is based upon the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and takes an alternative view of the relationship between the Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch. Featuring a score by Stephen Schwartz that includes such modern classics as Popular and Defying Gravity, the work showcased its original stars Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda and Idina Menzel as Elphaba (the character who would later become infamous as the Wicked Witch of the West).
    Helen Campo is the original flutist of Wicked. In addition to her Broadway position, she is principal flute of the New Jersey Festival Orchestra and a member of The New York Pops. She is also a long-time principal substitute for the NYC Ballet, NYC Opera, and NY Philharmonic. Campo began playing flute to follow in the footsteps of her older sister, and progressed rapidly, becoming the youngest flutist ever to have won the Concert Artist Guild competition. Immediately after graduating with an MA, she was hired by Loren Glickman to play the summer season at the Metropolitan Opera, which was providing ballet music for out-of-town companies such as the Kirov and Royal Ballet among others. The principal flutist there was Andy Lolya, who recommended her to a Broadway contractor, and the rest is history. Wicked is her 11th Broadway chair. She teaches privately, both in Manhattan and over Skype, and is married to cellist Danny Miller.
    In addition to her regular flutes, Campo plays an alto flute, piccolo, soprano recorder, and Eb penny whistle for Wicked. She also has a collection of penny whistles, bamboo flutes, Irish wood flutes, and pan pipes. “Notation issues for most of the instruments I play are minimal; you just have to know that a lot of these instruments are not in C, but instead of transposing you think in concert pitch and consider the fingerings to be different for the same pitch on the different instruments. If one is very flute-centric and not used to thinking of fingerings being totally different on the differently keyed instruments, one can always just transpose.”
    She comments that one of the most noticable differences between performing in a Broadway show versus in an orchestra is the complexity of the flute parts – although a notable exception to this is the music of Leonard Berstein. “I was fortunate enough to play under him at the age of 20 in the Tanglewood Fellowship Orchestra and not long after play flute and harpsicord duets with him. At its essence, however, music is music whether playing symphonies or Broadway shows. There is always an opportunity for expression and dialogue. Certainly, the flute parts in symphonic repertoire are far more complex than Broadway flute books. With the exception of the highly chromatic recorder sections in Jane Eyre, I have never played a Broadway flute book that could not be sightread. On the other hand, chamber and solo flute repertoire tends to be more demanding technically than orchestral repertoire. 

Page of flute part of Wicked

    “Playing technically complex music is a great deal of fun, in the same way that figuring out a puzzle is fun, but it does not necessarily make the musical experience more profound. For me, communication is what is most important – whole worlds can be expressed in one note or in the silence between two. Conversely, sometimes nothing is expressed in a thousand. This is not to say that a thousand notes cannot be expressive as well, but complexity is independent of expression. So, if you remember that while playing, the particular genre becomes less important.
    “I think that attitude allows me to just be very grateful I am performing whatever it is I am playing at any given moment. Granted we have to play the same music over and over, but that happens in an orchestral setting as well. In the 12 years I subbed at the New York Philharmonic, I played some Tchaikovsky symphonies enough times to make your head spin. Even when I was 20 and on the Concert Artist Guild roster as a soloist, I experienced a lot of repetition. It seemed as though everyone wanted me to play the same two concertos with their orchestra. I remember thinking while on the road during that period that it was sort of like a Broadway show – only with jet lag. Repetition and simplicity can be your ball and chain on a Broadway show, or with the right attitude, they can be a musical zen experience, and simplicity can equal freedom.”

David Weiss and The Lion King
    The Lion King caused a sensation when it opened in 1997, with visionary director Julie Taymor taking a beloved Disney animated film and reimagining it by incorporating stunning puppetry and costumes. The South African musician and composer Lebo M added Zulu musical numbers and lyrics to the original songs by Elton John and Tim Rice and the Hans Zimmer score. This greatly enhanced the theatrical experience and further established the stage musical as its own unique entity. The Lion King has won six Tony awards including Best Musical and Best Director, and is currently the third longest-running show in Broadway history and the highest-grossing Broadway musical of all time at over $1 billion.
    David Weiss has been flutist for The Lion King since its pre-Broadway run in Minneapolis during the summer of 1997. A highly sought after clinician on world flutes, he has given presentations at several National Flute Association conventions and co-composed the woodwind parts on The Lion King. He was instrumental in writing and notating for the various world flutes integral to the score.
    Weiss comes from a musical family. His mother was a flutist and teacher who studied with Joseph Mariano and Julius Baker, and his clarinetist father (now retired) was an Associate of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for decades, with an illustrious career bridging the Classical and Broadway worlds. Weiss earned a university degree in classical flute performance but is also an experienced jazz musician. Growing up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, he was exposed to the music of various international cultures. By his high school years, he was exploring the flute music of Japan, India, Latin America, and Africa. This would lead to a lifelong interest in international instruments. Over the years he has amassed a collection with hundreds of flutes and other woodwinds. Composers and orchestrators often consult with him on historical and ethnomusicological matters, and he lends his expertise to film soundtracks, television commercials, video games, and documentaries, among other projects.
    Weiss began performing as a substitute on Broadway while still studying at the Manhattan School of Music. His first job as a regular on Broadway was with a production of Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, and in 2017 he will mark his 20th anniversary working with The Lion King full-time. Over his career he estimates that between Broadway and Off-Broadway he has had 13 shows of his own and performed as a substitute on around 35 others. He is currently working on an etude book that concentrates on visualization of certain exercises, which serves as a basis for learning to improvise. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, violist Kaya Katarzyna Bryla.
    Even though pit orchestra musicians can play the same show for years on end, live theater provides enough variables, both onstage and in the pit, to demand a player’s full attention and musicality. Whether it be a new understudy going on for the first time, or a substitute musician joining an established section, there are always things to listen and watch for. Every show may not have the excitement of opening night, but they have the responsibility of presenting the show in its best form for each new audience. Helen Campo and David Weiss embody this ideal in every performance.  

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Tips for Playing in a Pit Orchestra

Protect your hearing: Performing in such close and enclosed quarters, it is important to always keep hearing protection in mind. Occasionally playing with ear plugs (in one or both ears) can take some getting used to, as it obviously greatly alters the musical lines you are used to hearing. Slight discomfort aside, it is much preferable to permanent hearing damage. I have seen everything from sound blocking ear muffs to custom molded earplugs utilized in pits in addition to the regular kinds you can buy at the pharmacy.

Layers: Pit temperatures can fluctuate wildly from day to day, and even during a single show. In addition, stage effects such as theatrical smoke and fog often drift straight off the stage and right into the pit – instantly affecting both temperature and humidity. It is helpful to have an extra layer of clothing (black) for these situations. It is also crucial to take note of the effect these fluctuations can have on your instruments and adjust accordingly.

Basic Repairs: Anything can happen during a show, from stage props falling into the pit to keys binding from temperature drops. It can be invaluable to have basic repair knowledge and tools on hand, such as spring hooks, screw drivers, key oil, pad paper, etc. Of course it is better for a repair technician to take a look at your instrument, but for last-minute problems these items can save a performance.

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Mishaps

    Live theater can lead to occasional hiccups when something does not go according to plan. While playing in a revival of The Sound of Music, Campo recalls Maria’s bicycle falling off of the stage into the pit. “No one was hurt, so we all oohed and aahed, handed it back on stage, and kept playing.” She was also playing in a show when the conductor fell unconscious during the performance. “We had to call an ambulance. He was taken away still unconscious, but turned out to be fine – just dehydrated and weak from working out too much.”
    During the time Weiss was with Miss Saigon, he was seated on the edge of a shallow orchestra pit with just a curtain and a rail between himself and the first row of the audience. “The audience was about three feet above the pit, and some people would poke their feet through the curtain and hover them above our heads. I got tired of this and got a feather quill so if someone invaded my space a bit too much I would tickle them with the feather quill to get rid of them.”

The post Playing Flute on Broadway appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

    Flutist Claire Chase is a soloist, collaborative artist, and advocate for new and experimental music. In 2001, she founded the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). The ensemble has premiered over 800 works and has won the Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center and the Ensemble of the Year Award from Musical America Worldwide. In 2012 she was named a MacArthur Fellow and with the monetary grant has embarked on a 22-year commissioning project, called Density 2036, to create an entirely new body of repertory for solo flute. 

What led you to form ICE?
    During my junior year at Oberlin, I received a $5,000 grant from the Theodore Presser Foundation and decided to assemble a contemporary music ensemble of 15 people, commission five new pieces in the celebration of the year 2000, produce a concert and recording, and get 750 people in the audience. As I was putting together the grant application, my advisors said that it was too much.  I tried to separate out the different components, but I could not do it. I did not think that any of those things were separate, and I could not imagine the project without doing all of it. I spent a year producing the concert. I put it all together and learned everything by just doing it.  
    In the process I realized that this was what I wanted to do with my life. I did not have a name for it, and there certainly was not a defined career path, but it became very clear to me that this was what I was called to do. It combined all of the things that I love. I like jumping off the proverbial cliff of commissioning, nurturing and bringing into being a world premiere. I enjoy connecting people to the essential ritualistic act of giving a concert, talking to kids about music, getting them to concerts of contemporary music, and sharing a nascent body of repertory with other ensembles, musicians, and composers. 
    After graduation I planned to move to Chicago to wait tables, gig, teach, and have a little time to figure out what was next. Michel Debost wanted me to take auditions, but I did not feel ready for that or that it was what I was meant to do. Halfway through the bus ride to Chicago, I realized that I had already started doing the work that I wanted to do and with the people that I wanted to do it with. I got off the bus and checked out a book from the Chicago Public Library on how to start a non-profit organization. Six months later, we gave our first concert on January 6, 2002. Our budget was $603, which was my holiday catering tips. I got food and wine donated and a guy at Kinko’s copied our flyers for free. The 15 musicians came from all over the country, and we presented our concert. After that I put together a board of directors and had our first real fundraising campaign. It grew very fast with the budget doubling between years one and two and two and three. This growth continues today. 

What is the Density 2036 project? 
    The project is a 22-year commissioning initiative based on the transformative power of Edgard Varèse’s Density 21.5. The pieces do not have to directly reference Density 21.5. Instead it is meant to be a poetic and conceptual jumping-off point for composers to think about what the flute is in the 21st century, what its language is, who the audience is, what stories it tells, and so forth. What interests me tremendously is the potential for the intersection of many different disciplines and ways of thinking about performance practices and the development of instruments. People often ask whether it will be boring to do the same project for 22 years. In many ways I believe it is freeing because it combines all of these things that I was doing in different disciplines with different projects and has created a funnel for them to be harnessed into one initiative. 


Is there a commissioning plan? 
    Every year, new pieces are commissioned and premiered at The Kitchen, a venue in Manhattan. The first three years explored how far we could amplify, expand, and stretch the concert recital format to make it a new kind of performance experience, while preserving some of the traditions of a programmed concert, and with the inclusion of many different styles and composers. For example, the pieces were played without pause in between, sometimes slightly overlapping, from the beginning to the end of the concert. In addition, staging, lighting, choreography, and stage design added to the experience of each piece. Last year there were five new pieces, this year there are six. The concept for this year is based on duos: glissando flute and ondes martenot (Suzanne Farrin), flute with eight voices (Richard Beaudoin, Roomful of Teeth), and contrabass flute with jazz drum set (Tyshawn Sorey). Next year, I am working with a single composer, director, and designer to create a 90-minute opera for solo flute and mass community participation. We are looking to create a body of work for three years that explores the idea of the flute and flutist as the centerpiece of a one-woman show, with a single composer as the collaborator. 

Tell us about your early studies. 
    When I was three, my parents took me to hear the San Diego Symphony play Brahms Symphony No. 4. I saw this instrument in the middle of the orchestra and even before I heard its sound, the way that it looked and the way that it shone blew my mind. It was the only thing I wanted to look at and listen to. After the concert, I told my mom, that it was the one that I wanted to play. Of course, it was way too early to start the flute, so I took piano, violin, and voice lessons first. Finally, on my eighth birthday, I got a flute. I didn’t want to put it down; all I wanted to do was practice. I started studying with John Fonville in San Diego when I was ten. He played a lot of contemporary music and is a phenomenal composer and improviser. When I was twelve, he played Density 21.5 for me. It was a transformative moment. Four and a half minutes of the most powerful flute playing and the most powerful piece I had ever heard. That is what really got me bitten by the bug to explore new sounds. 

What did you study with Michel Debost? 
    I met Michel Debost at the Oberlin Summer Flute Academy and just loved him. He is that rare bird who is as gifted as a teacher as he is as a performer. There are so few people who have that combination of gifts. The Michel Debost school of flute playing is the same for everybody. Everyone plays the same etudes and the same repertoire. There is a repertoire list each year, and everybody gets through all of it, depending on your grade level. This might seem confining, but I actually found it very liberating because you have a schedule to work up against. It is so good to have structure.  
    Debost was equal parts philosopher and poet as a teacher, and he was tough. We definitely had our conflicts. I wanted to play contemporary music and he was supportive of that, but of course I had to play all of the classics as well, which I also loved. Towards my third and fourth year, he let me go and do some of my own things. He set the bar extremely high. 
    The foundation that he gave me is so strong. I still do the Scale Game every day. He has it structured so your mind and body are always engaged and you cannot go on autopilot. I like to switch up my routine depending on how much time I have. Over the past few years, I have been performing so much and my practice time is so limited that what I choose to do in the warm up and how I vary it every two or three weeks is really critical. Michel gave me these tools.
    He told me one day, “Ma petite Claire, you have two professors.” He pulled my left ear, “one professor,” then pulled my right ear, “two professor. Those are the only professors you have. Use them!” He also had a voracious appetite for literature, art, cinema, and such an appreciation of beauty and curiosities beyond music which were so inspiring to me. Some of my favorite lessons were those where we did not play the flute at all. We went to look at art at the Oberlin art museum, and then we would walk in the park and talk about life. All of that stuff shows up in your playing. 

Why did you pursue a career in contemporary music instead of classical music?
    When you love something, it decides for you where you are going to spend your energy. When we love a piece of music, it is really difficult to think about anything else. The process of creating new music just took hold of me. I wasn’t making decisions; I was just following this thing that I loved, and was deeply passionate about figuring out how to share. I definitely questioned my decision and know that my mentors, teachers, and family questioned what I was doing. There were a few moments where I almost decided I was going to go back to graduate school, but I never actually put in an application. I would always be drawn back. There is a Rumi poem that says, “Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.” In every moment that I listened to that little voice that said I should go to graduate school, take auditions, or play Mozart concertos rather than commission new concertos, I would indulge it for a while and then I would just be silently drawn back to the stronger pull of what I really wanted to do.

What about classical music? 
    I play and listen to Bach every day. My life is so crazy and unpredictable that I appreciate having certain rituals like this. I do not want to play Mozart flute concertos with an orchestra because there are so many fantastic flute players who do it beautifully and phenomenally so much better than I can. I love listening to them. I treasure recordings by artists like Emmanuel Pahud, Michel Debost, and Marina Piccinini, but I don’t know that the world needs me to go out and do that.
    While I do listen to a great deal of classical music, I am always exploring, discovering, and researching contemporary music. I do not really like to use the word contemporary music anymore and use classical less and less unless I can define what that means. My idea of classical music is not just Bach to Beethoven but instead dates back to 600 B.C. with the first evidence of notated music. It continues through today and includes non-western traditions. Why is classical Indian music not classical music or an artist like Prince? It is all connected, so I do not espouse the delineation of these things. I feel this is a really important idea and one of the most exciting things about the time that we are in is that we can belong to so many different musical communities. We do not have to attach ourselves to one thing and just continue repeating it. Music is constantly changing and evolving, and we get to come along for the ride.

What do you say to people who do not like contemporary music?
    I like to talk to people about what puts them off. For example, why do they think it is weird? I do not know why it is any weirder than things that people say, or why the sounds we hear in the city every day are stranger than the sounds that we make on a percussion instrument or the flute. I like to talk about why people define things so narrowly. The point of being alive is to change and learn, and I believe that artists and teachers should do that with great conviction. I believe this is true whether you love early music, romantic music, or music that is written today. As an artist, I try to do what inspires me and go towards those places that are actually the most uncomfortable and find out what secrets are lodged there. I enjoy inviting audiences to think that way not just about listening to music but about their lives and listening to other people. Mahler said this so well: “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of the fire.” That one statement just puts to rest any notion that there is a difference between classical and contemporary music.

What advice would you have for musicians who are still in school or at the beginning of their careers? 
    Think about what moves you and what you love. Then ask yourself, how do I share this? With time as you grow, there will be different answers. In two years, the answers should be different from what they are today. I think that students are taught in classical music training that they should have one idea of what they are doing, and they have to just go toward that idea. They become focused on just that repertoire and vision of themselves. I think it is much harder than that. That is, who are you today? How can you most honestly express that through music and take responsibility for how you share it? As Oscar Wilde said: “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”  

* * *

International Contemporary Ensemble

    ICE is a 35 member new-music ensemble dedicated to transforming the way music is created and experienced. The group currently serves as artists-in-residence at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Mostly Mozart Festival, and previously led a five-year residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. New initiatives include OpenICE, which offers free concerts and related programming wherever ICE performs, and enables a working process with composers to unfold in public settings. EntICE, a side-by-side youth program, places ICE musicians within youth orchestras as they premiere new commissioned works together. After 15 years as the executive director of ICE, Claire Chase stepped down this fall to pursue her ongoing personal projects, and passed her leadership role to other members of the group.  

    Claire Chase, a native of Leucadia, California, is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she studied with Michel Debost. She also studied with John Fonville and Damian Bursill-Hall. She was the 2009 Grand Prize Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and in 2015 was honored with the American Composers Forum Champion of New Music Award. For more on the Density 2036 project go to .

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    Take a minute and describe your tone. Do words like rich, resonant, full, warm, vibrant come up? I hope so. Do you associate a dynamic with this tone? If so, most likely it is mf or forte. This tone and dynamic combination is probably your comfort zone of playing. Next describe your tone when you are playing softly. Did the adjectives change? Ideally not, but if they did, try the following ideas to increase your confidence and improve your soft playing.

1. Change your thinking
    The first step to becoming less worried about playing softly is to change your mental framework. Try to think about your tone being the same whether you play loudly or softly. Even when the sound is softer, the quality of the tone should carry over completely. Playing softly should basically feel the same as playing in your comfort zone with some minor adjustments for intonation and color.

2. What the composer wants
    When determining how to play a passage softly, determine what the composer’s intention is. For example, does the composer want an echo effect or a color change? Once you determine the desired effect, you will feel more comfortable creating it. Also, make sure you are setting up the dynamic change in a way that will not end in failure. For example, do not start an ascending passage too softly so the diminuendo has nowhere to go.

3. Dolce
    When you see the word dolce with a piano dynamic, the composer is asking for both a color and a dynamic change. To successfully achieve this, the shape of your lips should change. A great way to practice colors in your tone, in loud and soft dynamics, are with different vowel shapes in your lips and mouth. For example, compare the color of your sound when playing with an A shape versus an eew shape. Practice these shapes while playing softly and loudly. Both should create new colors.

4. Practice playing piano
    Always practice playing softly. Flutists tend to practice the most in the dynamics that feel the most comfortable because it is the tone they like best. This means that the extremes, soft and loud, are not practiced regularly. To feel comfortable playing softly, you will need to log significant time playing that way. This practice should include exercises with tuning drones so you can adjust intonation accordingly.

5. Crescendo/decrescendo
    Crescendo and decrescendo exercises are an effective way to develop a broad range of dynamics. Learning to vary the aperture size and air speed will help develop dynamic changes. Playing in tune is, of course, part of the goal.

6. Soft scale and exercise practice
    Practice playing exercises and scales in all ranges at a piano dynamic. First ensure you are playing evenly with a good sound at a moderate dynamic and then try them again playing softly.

7. Embouchure
    Your embouchure has to reflect the tone. When playing softly, tense lips result in the tone becoming airy and dry. It may help to envision the definition of soft: easy to mold, cut, compress, or fold; not hard or firm to the touch. Make your lips fit this description and add supported air to achieve a beautiful soft sound.

8. Aim that air
    Air direction has a huge influence on intonation. If you struggle to keep your soft playing in tune, remember to adjust the air direction so that you are aiming above the wall of the lip plate or trying to blow up your nose as some flutists say.

9. Flute in the chin
    When you feel tense and nervous about play softly with a good tone, especially in the third and fourth octave, check the pressure of your lip plate in the chin. If you notice a significant amount of pressure, try to place the embouchure plate lower in the chin to free the bottom lip so you can direct the air up more. 

10. Intonation
    It is easier to lip the pitch down than to raise it. Be sure your headjoint is inserted where it is easy to lip the pitch in either direction

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Question: I get nervous before auditions and concerts. Do you have any suggestions to help me calm down so I can play my best?

Answer: My first encounter with nervousness was when I was a student at Curtis studying with Julius Baker and Jeffrey Khaner. Their teaching styles were the opposite of each other. Mr. Baker taught and motivated by giving various levels of compliments, while Mr. Khaner was super strict. He gave many suggestions and seldom complimented us, so I often got the feeling that it was almost impossible to satisfy his high expectations. (I do think I was extremely lucky to have such teachers with completely different teaching styles as it made a great balance.)
    I remember having nightmares the day before my lessons with Mr. Khaner. I was worried about everything. What if I come late to the lesson? What if I play a wrong note? What if he doesn’t like the way I’m playing? What if I didn’t fix everything he suggested the week before? The list would go on nonstop in my head. As I was on my way to school for the lesson or waiting for my turn in the hallway, people often asked me if I was okay. I must have looked totally miserable! This anxiety continued in concerts as well, although never as terrible as it was before the lessons. It still happened, however, and it concerned me.
    When we get nervous, we experience changes in our bodies such as sweaty or cold hands and feet, pounding heartbeat, difficulty in breathing normally, trembling airstream, tensed muscles, dry mouth, heartburn, urge to visit the restroom, or undesired swallowing in the midst of the playing. In my case it is mostly about a pounding heart and dry mouth.
    It is truly heartbreaking to experience these symptoms and not be able to play one’s best, especially after having spent so many hours preparing for a concert. Sometimes when I judge a competition, I agonize about how to judge those students who are clearly having a difficult time playing their best – especially because I know exactly what they’re going through. It is very sad for both performers and listeners.
    Compare the act of performing to meeting a new group of people. It is natural to be a little uncomfortable. When meeting new people, you get a chance to introduce yourself and start a conversation. However, at a concert, you know very few, if any, of the audience members and enter the stage and start playing before you find your comfort zone. Therefore, it is crucial to not stress or be ashamed about nervousness. Embrace the fact that it is a natural reaction to have a bit of fear, rather than trying to fight it off. The more you fight it, the more fright you will experience.
    Human beings tend to fear the unknown. In the German language there is an interesting word, Kopfkino, which literally means a movie theater in your head (Kopf=head, kino=cinema). Kopfkino ensues when you involuntarily use your imagination to think about upsetting things in realistic detail. Imagination is a fabulous tool,  and we should strive to use it in a positive direction.
    As people get older, they learn manners, and the skills to fit in. To do this, we must see ourselves as others do. Bringing this perception to the stage is a disastrous trait for performers. Instead of focusing on what people will think of your playing, you should turn off your Kopfkino and start thinking about the basics such as why we play music and why people come to our concerts. You will soon realize this simple fact: we play music because we love playing it, and people come to concerts because they love listening to it. Nobody comes to a concert to have an awful time. They are on your side. They want you to play well, and they want to enjoy the beautiful music.
    To tell the truth, while you are self-conscious about what the audience is going to think about you, mostly they are not even interested in you. Their sole interest lies in the music you are playing. If you are fully focused on the piece itself, there is absolutely no space in your head for thinking about anything else. This is the ideal zone you must enter. And remember, it is not about you.
    I try to practice as if I am performing on stage, and vice versa, so that I don’t get shocked when the real stage occurs. The other good way to overcome nervousness is to perform as often as possible. Flutists are lucky that we can carry our flutes easily unlike other instruments, and we can perform basically anywhere.
    I am not going to tell you to breathe deeply and imagine a calming scenario when you get a stage fright because that really did not work for me. The way I see it is when you try to take any action towards nervousness right before the concert, it is already too late. At this last minute, you can only acknowledge the fear in you, accept it, say hi to the fear, and then don’t give it further attention. Otherwise it will only grow.
    Focus on the piece you are going to perform. Nobody will die or be injured even if you play horribly, so why not just be grateful and happy for being able to share this incredible work of art. Sing out from the bottom of your heart and simply let the music fly. If you are still nervous, then try to hide it as much as you can. Try to release the tensions, let the air sink into your body so that it doesn’t float on your throat, and just enjoy the moment. These suggestions are what I do.
    Last summer in a flute festival in Croatia, I had the privilege to meet Pierre-Yves Artaud, one of the most sought-after flute professors in France. It was a gorgeous midsummer night, and all of the teachers and students had gathered together outside. Among the questions was one about performance anxiety. Mr. Artaud told us, “You have to imagine the entire situation in your head, every tiny detail from walking into the stage until you take a bow after the playing. If this is a competition, fantasize till the moment you leave the competition with the prize in your hand.”
    Sir James Galway, who has performed far, far more concerts than any of us, told me, “I never get nervous  because I am always very well prepared.” Both Mr. Artaud and Sir Galway’s comments were very inspiring to me. I also believe that great preparations can conquer all your anxiety in the end.
    Lastly, I would not drink any caffeinated drinks on your concert day. Getting enough sleep and good nutrition are also important. Sometimes I take a nap or read a nice book so that I can take my mind away from the concert and calm down a bit. Be yourself, have fun, and good luck!

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