Potomac Flute Festival 08
Potomac Flute Festival 2008
New artists, new faces, new weather challenges, new West Virginians at the event. There were a lot of good things about a very busy and flute packed weekend at the festival.
This continues to be one of the largest annual gatherings of flute addicts on the east coast and workshops were sold out this year. Additionally the house was full on Saturday night for R.C. Nakai and his concert was a delight. The weekend started off a bit rough, as several folks were turned away in an icy parking lot Friday afternoon when registration was to begin. My fault really for not checking the web site before I rushed to the car to begin my long drive from Elkins and beat the freezing rain, but I was determined to make it to Rockville on time. My friends from WV (Allen, Johnny and John F) drove even farther on Friday but found some fun in town anyway. No ones fault but the snow gods for causing giving Montgomery College cause to close the campus and leave the festival committee scrambling to keep everyone in the loop for “plan B”. They did this quite well and further managed to pull off nearly the entire schedule of events in the remaining two days. The big disappointment was missing Mark Holland, who was stranded by the same weather without a way to even get to the festival. I got to spend a quiet Friday night with family and with above freezing weather on Saturday morning we all got back to what we came to do. Kudos goes to the PFF committee for working so hard to make all necessary adjustments to keep things tracking well in spite of the weather.
Jan Seiden and Jim Morehouse were Saturday afternoon’s concert performers and were great. Jan has a new album Memory of Time and her performance debuted several of the new songs from this album. Watching Jan play is almost as fun as listening to her. The new album is entirely flutes and percussion yet some of these tracks leave your ears wondering “how does she do that?” Her live performance is a treat as you get to see how Jan produces some of these sounds on some very special flutes. Jan has also taken up the Anasazi flute and her original compositions are both haunting and beautiful. Be careful listening to the Anasazi flute in the hands of a skilled musician, it will make you want to learn to play one – as there is no other sound like it. Jim’s playing really is beautiful to listen to and reflects both his personality and passion for the flute very well. His performance featured all of his own instruments, including flutes from the Maryland State tree, the Wye Oak, who was estimated to be nearly 500 years old when it fell.
New Flute makers this year included Jon Kulias from Meadowlark flutes. John creates in ceramic to make some beautiful and rich sounding flutes and he is getting a lot of attention these days for being one of just a few people who work in clay. It seems that attention is well deserved as he is a genuine guy and talented artist. Brent Haines returned this year with his amazing work and several flute makers had new designs to share. Geri Littlejohn is now offering branch flutes that are wonderful. Colyn Petersen’s new sub-bass flutes are awesome and he debuted the new Ron Warren signature flute at the festival. Randy Stenzel has a Johnny Lipford signature flute that is beautiful and plays as you would expect it would. Leonard McGann displayed a flute made from an Armadillo’s tail, and his rated R flute I cannot talk about here. The flutes that went up for raffle were just amazing too as each flute maker had something special in the drawing. Great eye and ear candy for flute addicts.
R.C. Nakai is someone that nearly everyone has heard of and his music as a collaborator and ambassador goes well beyond the flute world. His music definitely is dreamlike and mystical but for me his engagement of the audience and discussions of the instrument were a highlight equal to his playing. Sunday morning he gave a discussion with some history but a great deal of exchange and question and answer time about all things flute and flute related. As one of the Song Keepers for this instrument that may have been the best session of weekend for me even though he didn’t pick up a flute.
Workshop feedback was great from what I heard whether folks were making PVC flutes, learning about the history of the instrument, attending Clint Goss’s playshop sessions or learning about topics from breathing to music theory. All those happy flute people crammed into the music college makes for really good energy. Many familiar faces and some new folks too made for a great weekend socializing. It was tough to head home Sunday afternoon but at least I had a new flute to play on the drive.
To hear more stories and share the learning from Potomac Flute Festival attend our March meeting at RCCAC Saturday March 8th from 1-3pm
New artists, new faces, new weather challenges, new West Virginians at the event. There were a lot of good things about a very busy and flute packed weekend at the festival.
This continues to be one of the largest annual gatherings of flute addicts on the east coast and workshops were sold out this year. Additionally the house was full on Saturday night for R.C. Nakai and his concert was a delight. The weekend started off a bit rough, as several folks were turned away in an icy parking lot Friday afternoon when registration was to begin. My fault really for not checking the web site before I rushed to the car to begin my long drive from Elkins and beat the freezing rain, but I was determined to make it to Rockville on time. My friends from WV (Allen, Johnny and John F) drove even farther on Friday but found some fun in town anyway. No ones fault but the snow gods for causing giving Montgomery College cause to close the campus and leave the festival committee scrambling to keep everyone in the loop for “plan B”. They did this quite well and further managed to pull off nearly the entire schedule of events in the remaining two days. The big disappointment was missing Mark Holland, who was stranded by the same weather without a way to even get to the festival. I got to spend a quiet Friday night with family and with above freezing weather on Saturday morning we all got back to what we came to do. Kudos goes to the PFF committee for working so hard to make all necessary adjustments to keep things tracking well in spite of the weather.
Jan Seiden and Jim Morehouse were Saturday afternoon’s concert performers and were great. Jan has a new album Memory of Time and her performance debuted several of the new songs from this album. Watching Jan play is almost as fun as listening to her. The new album is entirely flutes and percussion yet some of these tracks leave your ears wondering “how does she do that?” Her live performance is a treat as you get to see how Jan produces some of these sounds on some very special flutes. Jan has also taken up the Anasazi flute and her original compositions are both haunting and beautiful. Be careful listening to the Anasazi flute in the hands of a skilled musician, it will make you want to learn to play one – as there is no other sound like it. Jim’s playing really is beautiful to listen to and reflects both his personality and passion for the flute very well. His performance featured all of his own instruments, including flutes from the Maryland State tree, the Wye Oak, who was estimated to be nearly 500 years old when it fell.
New Flute makers this year included Jon Kulias from Meadowlark flutes. John creates in ceramic to make some beautiful and rich sounding flutes and he is getting a lot of attention these days for being one of just a few people who work in clay. It seems that attention is well deserved as he is a genuine guy and talented artist. Brent Haines returned this year with his amazing work and several flute makers had new designs to share. Geri Littlejohn is now offering branch flutes that are wonderful. Colyn Petersen’s new sub-bass flutes are awesome and he debuted the new Ron Warren signature flute at the festival. Randy Stenzel has a Johnny Lipford signature flute that is beautiful and plays as you would expect it would. Leonard McGann displayed a flute made from an Armadillo’s tail, and his rated R flute I cannot talk about here. The flutes that went up for raffle were just amazing too as each flute maker had something special in the drawing. Great eye and ear candy for flute addicts.
R.C. Nakai is someone that nearly everyone has heard of and his music as a collaborator and ambassador goes well beyond the flute world. His music definitely is dreamlike and mystical but for me his engagement of the audience and discussions of the instrument were a highlight equal to his playing. Sunday morning he gave a discussion with some history but a great deal of exchange and question and answer time about all things flute and flute related. As one of the Song Keepers for this instrument that may have been the best session of weekend for me even though he didn’t pick up a flute.
Workshop feedback was great from what I heard whether folks were making PVC flutes, learning about the history of the instrument, attending Clint Goss’s playshop sessions or learning about topics from breathing to music theory. All those happy flute people crammed into the music college makes for really good energy. Many familiar faces and some new folks too made for a great weekend socializing. It was tough to head home Sunday afternoon but at least I had a new flute to play on the drive.
To hear more stories and share the learning from Potomac Flute Festival attend our March meeting at RCCAC Saturday March 8th from 1-3pm
Labels: flutes WV, Jan Seiden, Potomac Flute Festival, RC Nakai
posted by Carl at 10:32 AM
