In March of 2020, with the sudden shut down of college campuses nationwide due to the Covid-19 pandemic, my students who were actively involved in performance projects suddenly found themselves at home with no performance opportunities in sight. At that time, many of them were learning new works written by their college peer composers with no place to premiere them. Two large ensemble pieces for full flute choir which had been rehearsed now were on hold and it was truly devastating on so many levels. At the height of creativity, the cessation of these activities meant that my students would no longer be together to honor their commitments. Our composers would no longer enjoy the premiere of these works in the usual public format, that being a concert. I was desperate for my students to see these projects through, and I wanted them to create art together even though we were now completely isolated.

​

As the entire music industry moved to home recording, it was suddenly necessary for musicians everywhere to fully embrace technology especially if they wanted to share their own art. I decided after seeing many things on YouTube, that we could fulfill our promise to our composers by recording the parts separately from home and deliver world premieres to them.

This of course meant that everyone would have to learn how to play together, while in lockdown at home and produce a recorded premiere of the work. With the help initially of a few technical savvy graduate students in another program along with the very generous help of my friends and brilliant colleagues, I learned the very basics of home recording. My next challenge was teaching this information to my class so that they could begin recording the flute choir works. By semesters end, our composers received the recorded premieres of their new works. Completely elated at the result, this began the journey of delivering our art through this new medium.

​

As the pandemic raged on throughout the country, the fall 2020 semester began, and we were still essentially in lockdown. With aerosol restrictions and constantly changing covid guidelines, I knew that my flutes would not have the same performance opportunities as some of the other string players, pianists and percussionists on campus. People who could easily mask and play were allowed to safely gather at great social distances outdoors and indoors, but winds and brass early on were left out of these opportunities. I knew that as temperatures dropped outside, it would be utterly impossible for winds and brass players to play safely together indoors. Here we were, all of us musicians, whose goal ultimately is to play together, to bring people together, to communicate on a deeply spiritual level, were still going to be painfully apart. I knew it was time to get creative and to reach across the aisle, to broaden our community and create art together while in isolation.

​

I reached out to Joan Tower and George Tsontakis in our composition department at Bard with a proposal. I asked them to ask  their composition students if they would be interested in a project collaborating with the flute students. This would not be part of the curriculum that each professor had already put in place for their students. Instead, it would be an extra project, one with no imposed deadline. Their participation in it would be completely voluntary. The only limits imposed were that it had to include flute! They could write solo pieces, duos, trios, large ensemble pieces, pieces with piano or whatever they desired. The flute students would learn the pieces, work remotely with other performers and the composers. They would produce recorded premieres that the composers could use in their portfolios; and the flute students would deliver this concert recording with a video. My goal was for the students to get to know each other, to discover the composer’s inspiration, to find their own voices and share ideas. As the flutists learned the pieces and worked with the composers, they would formulate a plan for shooting the video. The musical interpretation would inspire the video content. These videos could be a combination of photos, drawings and they could even seek out other artists to help them with the visual aspect of the project. The creative sky was the limit. This idea was met with great enthusiasm by everyone involved and the result thus far is a growing series of premieres at two different schools that now total 20 new works.

​

I am eternally grateful for my wonderful faculty colleagues who inspired their composition students to take part in this project and to write for us. I am in awe of the new works that these young composers have created for the flute world. I am deeply grateful for my incredible flute students, their talent and willingness to learn not only these beautiful new works written for the flute, and how they have fully embraced technology. This has been so inspiring to watch. I am so proud of their growth through this process and the close community that we have created through this project.

​

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” — Plato