Flute Bay Area - Home II

Mid-Winter Update

Happy 2009! The year starts on a high note, with visits to the region by some of America's finest flutists, including Carol Wincenc, Robert Stallman, Robert Dick, and Lady Jeanne Galway -- we offer details below. In addition, you can still check out our interview with the Bay Area's most effervescent, French School proponent, Isabelle Chapuis Starr, in FBA Focus. And flutist Elena Yarritu shares reflections on a recent master class she taught with Isabelle, in FBA Journal.

In FBA Focus,

we salute

Isabelle Chapuis Starr,

longtime flutist with

Opera San Jose and

faculty member at

San Jose State University.

Read about her early

life in France, and hear parts of our interview here.

The Laurel Ensemble and flutist Sarah Holzman have earned well deserved praise for prior concerts, even from very finicky critics.

Also on the program for this event is a piano trio by Jennifer Higdon. Additional performances are scheduled for Pacifica on February 28, and in San Francisco on March 26. Find details and ticket info on the ensemble's Website here.

The first of three performances by the Laurel Ensemble of Durufle's Prelude, Recitatif et Variations for Flute, Viola & Piano takes place on February 24, at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. Composed in 1928, this was an early work by the French organist, composer, and longtime Paris Conservatory professor of harmony, Maurice Durufle.

2/24 - Laurel Ensemble with Sarah Holzman

Bring Durufle to S.F., Pacifica

3/26 - Stallman Performs Rare, Bay Area Recital

at Le Petit Trianon

On March 26, revered flute icon Robert Stallman makes a rare, Bay Area appearance in a recital at Le Petit Trianon in San Jose. He will be accompanied by pianist Mark Anderson and joined for several pieces by his dear friend and colleague Isabelle Chapuis Starr.

Considered by many to be the chief heir to the legacy of Jean-Pierre Rampal, Robert Stallman -- as the Sunday Times of London notes -- "dazzles because of his penetrating artistry."

Stallman and Bay Area flutist Isabelle Chapuis Starr first met when they were both students at the Paris Conservatory in the 1960's. They now live on opposite U.S. coasts but remain friends and perform together from time to time. Recently, they recorded one of Stallman's celebrated, Mozart transcriptions -- Sinfonia Concertante -- with the Czech Chamber Orchestra, for a new album on the Bogner's Cafe label.

In conjunction with this visit, Robert Stallman will lead a master class for flutists on March 22. Concert and class details are posted on West Valley Music's Website here

You can also read more about Isabelle Chapuis Starr and Robert Stallman in this month's FBA Focus here.

Happy Birthday,

Sir James!

Sir James Galway

celebrated his 69th

birthday in December

and is brilliant as ever.

Sample his new CD,

O'Reilly Street, here.

1/24 to 1/26 - Carol Wincenc Plays Bernstein

With Santa Rosa Symphony

2/21 - Avedis Launches 24th Season

1/22 to 1/24 - U.C. Davis Hosts

Inaugural Flute Festival

The Santa Rosa Symphony welcomes Carol Wincenc, the internationally celebrated flute virtuoso and professor at The Juilliard School, in a concert featuring Leonard Bernstein's Halil. Halil, which means "flute" in Hebrew, is a concerto in a single movement, inspired by a young Israeli flutist who died in the Six Day War. Also on the program are Copland's Third Symphony and Roberto Sierra's Carnaval for Orchestra.

Performances are January 24, 25, and 26 at the Wells Fargo Center for the Performing Arts. Find concert details and ticket information here.

Alexandra Hawley kicks off the Avedis Chamber Music Series' 24th season with Faure and Friends, a concert of works by Faure, Damase, Gaubert, and Farrenc.

Avedis' founder and director, Hawley is a widely acclaimed soloist and chamber musician, who has been hailed by the New York Times for her "extraordinary range of tone and color" and her "spontaneous, perceptive musical sensitivity." For this concert, she assembles a winning ensemble with distinguished, Bay Area artists Stephen Harrison (cello) and Paul Hersh (piano).

Faure and Friends takes place Saturday, February 21, at 2:00 p.m., in the Florence Gould Theater of the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Find tickets and information on the Avedis series here.

2/21 - Avedis Launches 24th Season

With Faure and Friends

U.C. Davis' Department of Music hosts the first U.C. Davis Flute Festival, from January 22 - 24 at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Featured are recitals and classes with renowned flutist and composer Robert Dick, Julie McKenzie, Helen Spielman, and Tod Brody, who is also the event's curator. The festival is designed to delight flutists of every level, as well as interested listeners. Find complete details here.

Robert Dick

South Bay flutist

Jamie Mulfinger

performs Nielsen's Flute Concerto with

Redwood Symphony

at Canada College

on Saturday,

February 7 -- see details here.

2/22 - Lady Jeanne Galway and Zephyr Trio

Grace the Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs

The Ibert Trio

with flutist

Meerenai Shim

plays works by

Ibert, Martinu, and Cui

at the

Unitarian Universalist

Church of Palo Alto

Saturday, February 7

at 8:00 p.m. -- find

more info here.

Beyond the Bay Area but worth the trip is the Zephyr Trio's upcoming concert at the Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs, featuring internationally acclaimed flutist Lady Jeanne Galway with Darett Adkins, cello, and Jonathan Feldman, piano. An extraordinary talent, Lady Galway performs in major venues around the world with her husband, Sir James, who calls her his "favorite duet partner." Audiences are equally delighted, however, when she takes the stage on her own or with eminent friends Adkins and Feldman.

Performing together to critical acclaim since 2000, the Zephyr Trio has built a repertoire that includes works of Weber, Hadyn, Ravel, Villa-Lobos, Debussy, Lieberman, and others. The specific program for this concert, which takes place on the afternoon of February 22, has yet to be announced.

Tickets may be purchased here. For more on the Zephyr Trio, visit their Website here.