PHOTOS!

This post falls into the category of "Better Late Than Never", in that it was meant to go "live" last Monday…Somehow there was a glitch, so here goes:

Back in Lisbon with Wifi, I can finally start adding photos from the incredible week that just passed! The picture speaks the proverbial thousand words: a post-final-presentation THUMBS UP from and for the whole gang of the 4th Summer Flute Academy (AFV) outside ESMAE on Sunday last. A special thank you to the fantastic students; it was a real pleasure to work with you all, and I'll see you again next year!

Post-concert good cheer at the 4th Summer Flute Academy at ESMAE, Porto

Kids these days…

Are AMAZING!

Yesterday and today are the final presentations of the work we've done together at the 4th Summer Flute Academy- chamber music and ensrbles, respectively. What I love to see is the students' rising to the occasion as soon as they get up to perform- in front of a room of flutist-peers! Smiles and determination, gusto and charm, and "talent", oodles of talent. Which is to say hours and hours of hard work paying off. A delight to observe! With music from Gabrieli to Bozza, yesterday was a real show. Today the program leans more toward the modern, with ensemble works by Grieg and Wil Offermans, plus Jorge Ramos' "Recompor", based on a folk melody in a complex setting, and the stunning first-prize-winning (AFV's 3rd Composition Competition) duo "Traveling", for flute and alto flute, by Ricardo Matosinhos. These last two in world premiere and performed by AFV students. It's going to be quite a show again, I promise! Teatro Helena Sá e Costa at ESMAE at 11:30 am. Come see what "kids these today" can do! INSPIRING!

Welcoming Aldo Baerten to The AFV

Monday I finally met Aldo Baerten here at the Summer Flute Academy, where he'll be guest-teaching courtesy of the generosity of Powell Flutes. I've been waiting for this moment for MONTHS, and we hit it off in a major way. After an opening concert by the professors in music ranging from Purcell to Takemitsu and finishing with a Scherzo from a quartet by Walckiers, we headed for great food (this is Porto, after all) and stayed talking way too late! You might say that the music business has been truly globalized when a Belgian and a Californian know any number of people in common—including Australians, and I've not even been to Australia! We discussed the orchestral life, teaching, teachers and students, and how the connections formed link us all not only geographically but to the past and the future. A different kind of World Wide Web. Today Aldo will stat working with the fabulous students of the AFV, and another set of new connections will begin to form!