"THE NOW AND PRESENT FLUTE," A SEMINAR AND TWO RECITALS AT BARD COLLEGE Opening recital features flutists Patricia Spencer and Melissa Sweet, with pianist Stephen Gosling; closing recital features performances by participants in the seminar
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-From June 18 to June 22, Annandale will be filled with the music of Pan as flutist Patricia Spencer leads the seminar "The Now and Present Flute," sponsored by the Music Program at Bard College. Two recitals will be held in conjunction with the seminar: the first will feature flutists Spencer and Melissa Sweet, accompanied by pianist Stephen Gosling, on Monday, June 18; the closing recital, on Friday, June 22, will feature performances by the participants in the seminar. Both recitals begin at 8:00 p.m. in Bard Hall and are free and open to the public.
The opening recital will include Aaron Copland's Duo for Flute and Piano, which Spencer notes "is known for its pastoral charm and apparent simplicity, but the poignant mourning of the second movement prepares the way for Elliott Carter's Scrivo in vento, a deeply expressive low chant interrupted by cries of anguish." The concert will also feature the second performance of John Heiss's Apparitions, newly commissioned by the Longy School of Music in Boston in honor of Spencer's teacher, renowned flutist Robert Willoughby. Charles Koechlin's classic sonata for two flutes will be followed by a poetic, evocative work for flute and electronic sounds by Linda Antas titled A River from the Walls. The program concludes with André Jolivet's Chant de Linos, which the composer describes as an ancient Greek "funeral lament in between a cry and a dance."
The closing program, conducted by Patricia Spencer, will consist of a performance of new works for the flute, including an ensemble piece for multiple flutes performed by seminar participants and guest artists. Performers include flutists Tamara Devine, Olympia Fiedler, Floyd Hebert, Don Hulbert, Geoffrey Kidde, Alex Lissé, Melissa Sweet, Jessica Willis, Bill Ylitalo, and Joy Zalkind, with guitarist Gregory Dinger and pianist Maria de los Angeles Rivera.
The "The Now and Present Flute Seminar with Patricia Spencer" is presented annually in June by the Bard College Music Program. Flutists from across the country and from diverse backgrounds who include college students, public school music teachers, adult amateurs, and active professionals join together in the study of an exciting new repertoire for the flute.
Patricia Spencer has been acclaimed for her "astounding ability to play late 20th-century music, with all its technical and musical demands, beautifully and intelligently," by the American Record Guide. She received acclaim for the premiere of Shulamit Ran's flute concerto, Voices, at the 2000 National Flute Association Convention. As a soloist and flutist with the Da Capo Chamber Players, she has toured throughout the United States and abroad, including a solo performance at the 1999 International Computer Music Conference in Beijing. Spencer's solo recitals draw from the growing repertoire of pieces written for her by such composers as Ge Gan-ru, Miriam Gideon, Peter Golub, Stephen Jaffe, Arthur Kreiger, Salvatore Martirano, Thea Musgrave, Judith Shatin, Harvey Sollberger, Louise Talma, Joan Tower, and Yehudi Wyner.
Spencer's solo recordings include Joan Tower's Hexachords, Harvey Sollberger's Riding the Wind, Eleanor Cory's Epithalamium, Miriam Gideon's Eclogue, and Eric Chasalow's Over the Edge for flute and electronic sounds. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts recording program, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, and the Copland Fund for her two solo recordings on Neuma Records. The first recording includes works by Boulez, Carter, Talma, Martirano, Jaffe, Kreiger, Korde, and Perle. The second recording, Narcissus and Kairos, was called "rapturous" by Fanfare Magazine, and includes works by Judith Shatin and Thea Musgrave. Spencer, a faculty member in the Music Program at Bard College, also teaches flute and chamber music at Hofstra University.
Melissa Sweet has been the principal flutist with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra for more than 20 years. She has been a member of various chamber music ensembles and performs with guitarist Gregory Dinger as the duo Cantilena. Sweet is a highly regarded flute teacher in the Hudson Valley. Her own teachers have included Murray Panitz, Claude Monteaux, John Solum, and Patricia Spencer.
Pianist Stephen Gosling is a member of the New York New Music Ensemble and plays frequently for new music events in New York City.
For further information about the recitals and flute seminar, call Bard College at 845-758-6822 or Alfred Sweet at 845-246-6195.
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