Thanks to everyone who came to my recital at Trinity Chamber Concerts on April 28th! The Felsenfeld premiere was a success and I had a blast performing with Lori Lack, Paul Rhodes and Brandi Brandes.
If you missed it, here’s a 3 minute recap of my April 28, 2012 recital.
(Here’s a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/v/zLcqiqrcpKs)
Please come to my one and ONLY recital performance in the East Bay this year!
Trinity Chamber Concerts presents flutist Meerenai Shim in recital
Saturday, April 28, 2012
8pm
Trinity Chapel
(2320 Dana Street, Berkeley, California. Between Bancroft Way & Durant Avenue–one block from the U.C. Berkeley Campus.)
http://
Tickets and info: (510) 549-3864
Flutist Meerenai Shim with pianist Lori Lack and cellist Paul Rhodes
will perform at Trinity Chamber Concerts on April 28, 2012. The trio will premiere “To Committee” by Brooklyn composer Daniel Felsenfeld. The piece was commissioned by Ms. Shim and partial funding for the commission came via the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter. Other pieces on the program will include works from Ms. Shim’s 2011 debut album “Sometimes the City is Silent.” Percussionist Brandi Brandes will also make a guest appearance.
Don’t miss this exciting and quirky program of old and new chamber
works for flute!
The program:
Daniel Felsenfeld’s trio “To Committee” (world premiere!!)
Noah Luna’s “Entrometido” for flute and cello
Janice Misurell-Mitchell’s “Sometimes the City is Silent” for solo flute
Cindy McTee’s “Stepping Out” for flute and claves
Chaminade Serenade aux etoiles for flute and piano,
Ian Clarke’s Zoom Tube
CPE Bach Hamburger sonata.
I hope to see you there!
Here’s the video I made for “Sometimes the City is Silent”
(Here’s a link to the youtube page, if you don’t have flash.)
The awesome guys at SoundNotion had me back on the show on April 8th to discuss Kickstarter vs the NEA, etc. They also let me plug my upcoming performances in Chicago and Berkeley. Fun times!
Click here to watch the video podcast or to download the audio version. You can also subscribe to the podcast on itunes.
In 2005 I went to my first Summerflute course where Liisa Ruoho, Amy Likar, Lea Pearson, Stacey Pelinka, Bob Britton and Sandy Seefeld were teaching flute masterclasses, Body Mapping, Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais. It was my first time experiencing all these different ways to learn about movement.
By the time I finished my masters degree I was experiencing some intermittent nerve pain and numbness in my arms and hands so a good friend of mine suggested that I seek advice from flutist, Alexander Technique teacher and Andover Educator Amy Likar. I wish I had made an effort to see Amy earlier but Summerflute was just what I needed to get back on track with healthy performing and body use.
At Summerflute, I learned that I couldn’t move freely because I was trying to move in a ways that my body was not designed to move. One of my many mismappings was that I thought that my skull connected to my spine at the back of my head and I was working very hard to work around and accommodate this incorrect body map. I also had no idea how my arms connected to my torso so my arms felt immobile and my shoulders felt frozen.
At Summerflute, body mapping teachers showed me how my skeletal structure is designed to move, Alexander Technique teachers showed me how to use the anatomical information to experience good quality movement with their guidance, Feldenkrais lessons gave me the gift of non-judgmental self awareness, and most importantly, I learned how to use all this information to perform with better sound and technique as a flutist during Lissa Ruoho’s masterclasses.
Thanks to Summerflute, I am a new musician. I continued studying body mapping, Feldenkrais and Alexander Technique since my first time at Summerflute and am proud to say that I became a Licensed Andover Educator in February 2012. I have been going back to Summerflute ever since 2005 as a student or as a student/organizer and I hope to bring the kind of freedom of movement in music making that I experience now to others.
In 2012, Summerflute will be held at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia from June 25-29. Please contact me if you have any questions about Summerflute or body mapping.
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UPDATE! Since I wrote this post a few days ago, a flutist who attended Summerflute sent me a very nice email response to my post:
“I loved hearing how Bodymapping and the Summerflute experience helped you learn to integrate and use what you had learned and how it allowed you to continue to grow as a musician and person. I remember you well from that 2005 Summerflute session; you clearly had the talent, drive, and personality to make it as a flutist and teacher.
I benefited greatly from that workshop and from subsequent short term work with Amy Likar and Stacy Pelinka. I wish I could have lived closer to them to have regular lessons and supervision of my practice. I was experiencing excruciating back pain when I played the flute for more than 15 minutes and my playing was just “off”, nothing felt right or comfortable any more. (50+ years of bad playing habits can really do you in!! And, it all gets harder and more critical as you reach my advanced age: I will be 71 this week.)
I found that working consciously on what I was doing in playing the flute, sitting at the computer, reading quietly, and walking in the world make a lot of difference. Also, gaining a better perception of where I “really” was in space and how to feel when I was truly in balance eased my tension and let me play (and live) more freely.
In addition, starting to workout regularly at a fitness center to improve my strength and endurance and doing stretching exercises for more flexibility helped a lot as well….as did losing 20 lbs!!
I wish I would attend this year’s Summerflute and hope you have full attendance at it. I would love to be able to work with Liisa Ruoho again–she is SO perceptive and able to zero in on just what needs attention.”
Noah Luna
When I met Noah Luna, several years ago, he was a college student at CSUEB. He was working at a local music store at the time so I ran into him quite often. By the time he was a masters student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he won some composition competitions, started Beauty in Cacophony Press, and wrote a short flute and guitar piece for me. When I was ready to embark on a series of commissioning projects, he was on top of my list.
Thank you Noah, for participating in my first composer-collaborator interview:
M: How and when did you decide to become a composer?
Noah Luna: I decided to be a composer at the ripe old age of 16. I was in love with the game Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, particularly the music. I thought to myself: “Whose job is it to write the music to a video game? I wanna be that guy…” After finding out that there is SO much more than that out there, I fell in love with studying and writing music of all genres. Any job that allows me to write concert music, rock, jazz, and hip-hop, and still pay my bills was a dream come true.
M: Where did you get the idea or inspiration for Entrometido?
Noah Luna: Entrometido was a unique scenario. I heard cellist Jerry Liu practicing a piece he wrote which included cello percussion and I was flabbergasted. I had to write something that included those sounds alongside more traditional playing. I decided to write a piece that explored the two instruments as two separate and timberally diverse instruments, but the thing they had in common was this thunky percussive quality they could achieve when not played traditionally. I didn’t want it to be gimmicky – I wanted it to just show that the instruments were capable of so much more than they are given credit for. And, that that could be the basis for a programatic coupling: two instruments, under-appreciated, finding each other despite all their differences, and making beautiful music.
M: One of the many things that impress me about your work is how quickly you are able to complete your compositions. It seems to me that you completed Entrometido in less than one month. Is there a secret to your process? Do you have special brain food or routine that helps you write so quickly?
Noah Luna: My teacher, Rafael Hernandez, taught me the value of streamlined compositional technique, as well as the importance of meeting deadlines. He gave me the idea for the Sumi-e Competition that my company sponsored a few years back: a 24 hour composition competition. It got composers to just get to business and crank out their best stuff in a day. You know, get over themselves and just make great music. I loved that. But, the idea became so much more to me with regard to my technique overall: just get over myself, get out of the way of the music, and let it come. Once you get out of the way, music comes much more naturally, and much more quickly. Commissioning parties, and the ensembles they contract, are very appreciative of a composer that can meet deadlines. That’s a big part of why I have been commissioned repeatedly and that all the ensembles I work with are likely to do so again. Not enough composers are aware of how much deadlines matter.
Brainfood? Mexican food – I live by the stuff. Oh, and a good craft beer to wash it down. Ask anyone I know and they will tell you that I swear by Brother Thelonious by North Coast Brewery. Inspiration in a glass…
M: You are writing a piece for the Berkeley Symphony for their Under Construction Composers Program right now. What is it like to work with such a great organization, composer Gabriela Lena Frank and music director Joana Carneiro?
Noah Luna: Berkeley Symphony, Gabriela, and that whole program are a dream come true. No exaggeration: Gabriela is one of the most helpful, nurturing, and brilliant composers I have ever known. PLUS, the Berkeley Symphony musicians are top-notch in every regard. I cannot imagine a better program for a young composer to be a part of. I plan to get a lot out of this program and use it to make as big a splash as I can in the New Orchestral Music community.
M: When can we hear your piece performed by the Berkeley Symphony?
Noah Luna: April 29th. Visit http://www.berkeleysymphony.
M: You have a baby named Violet and I hear that you have “morning music time with Violet and daddy” every morning. What kind of music do you listen to together? Does Violet have a favorite composer, other than her daddy?
Noah Luna: Morning Music Time is the highlight of my day, every day, no question. She loves old vocal standards: Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Rogers and Hammerstein, etc. That’s the music I love as well. But, I’m not just projecting (I swear!) When she hears a trumpet or a saxophone tooting out the opening bars to “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” or “I Should Care” she freaks out and starts giggling uncontrollably. As for classical music she likes, she digs the big Romantics: Rachmaninoff, Wagner, Brahms. I think she just likes anything loud so she can Ooh and Aah and squeal along and not have it drown out the music.
Entrometido by Noah Luna. Performed by Meerenai Shim and Rachel Turner Houk:
Download it: iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, CD Baby
Exciting news! I have commissioned a piece for flute and Gameboy from Matt Payne of the chiptune band The Glowing Stars. Matt is not just a rock star, he’s a classically trained composer who just happens to be a killer performer as well.
I met Matt when I went to contribute to one of Jonathan Mann‘s song-a-day songs this June. Matt was making string and horn arrangements for Jonathan and I got to work with him a bit. A couple months later, we were playing Jonathan’s 1000th song-a-day show together. I saw The Glowing Stars perform live that night too and was blown away with their live act. That night, I left the Red Devil Lounge *determined* to have a Matt write me a piece for flute and Gameboy.
About a week ago I recorded some flute samples with and without vibrato so we’ll see how he uses those sounds. I can’t wait to play the piece!!
Check back soon to find out when I will be performing it!
How to send unsolicited scores or make first contact with someone you don’t know.
DO:
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