September  2010 |
 An Afternoon With
Kate Steinbeck
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Chris Abell
Sunday, September 26, 2010
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
St. Philip Lutheran Church
Free for RAFA members; $10 general admission
(RAFA memberships can be renewed at the registration table that day)
2:00 Concert by Kate Steinbeck (flute) & Deborah Hollis (piano)
Excerpts from The First of Winter, T.G. Febonio
Achat Sha'alti, Paul Schoenfield
Sonatina, op. 13, by Lennox Berkeley
Sonatine, Phillipe Gaubert
Valentine (1995), Lukas Foss
2:50 Workshop with flutemaker Chris Abell
Including an opportunity for attendees to try out his flutes, fifes, and headjoints!
4:00 Masterclass with Kate Steinbeck
Bring scores to the following music and follow along as Ms. Steinbeck works
with each flutist.
Hungarian Pastoral Fantasy, Doppler
~ performed by Sarah Busman ~
Sonatina (mvts 1 and 3), Burton
~ performed by Jane Howard ~
Siciliana e Burlesca, Casella
~ performed by Jessica Stallings ~
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Flute Choir News
(North Raleigh, across from Ravenscroft athletic fields).
Note: No auditions are required for Silver Winds Flute Choir
Students and adults interested in joining Silver Pipes or Silver Fantasy should contact director Sonja Noykos at sonjanoykos@gmail.com or 616-634-3292 to schedule an audition time between 1:45 - 4:45 pm on September 12.
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26th Annual Review and Contest
Sunday, November 7, 2010
2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
RAFA's 26th Annual Review and Contest will be held November 7, 2010. Music list, registration form, and guidelines are now available online. Each participant prepares two solos from the music list and chooses to enter either the Contest (competition) or Review (written feedback only). Students and adults of all ages and levels are encouraged to participate! Deadline to register is October 1.
Contact coordinator Lauren Robbins-Pollack with any questions at density21.5@earthlink.net or (919) 557-2272.
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| Summer Highlights
How did RAFA members spend their summer? Below is a sampling of activities. . .
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 Mary Rose Nieman (grade 10) writes: "I spent two weeks of my summer at the University of Michigan's summer program, MPulse Flute Institute, where I studied with Amy Porter. There I was able to spend hours a day in master classes that focused on both tone and technique, play in ensembles such as woodwind quintet and flute choir, and perform in several concerts and even a talent show."
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 Helen Spielman
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 Seema Ravishankar (recent graduate of Apex High) writes: "This summer, while in India, I sponsored and coordinated a dental camp for an underprivileged community in Gundlupet, Karnataka. To raise funds for this camp, I had a senior flute recital and in lieu of gifts, I asked for donations to this project titled Mission Smile. In addition to receiving dental care, more than 800 patients received free toothbrushes and toothpaste. I would like to thank the Raleigh Area Flute association for their support in the community and for inspiring me to continue playing the flute." |
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The annual National Flute Association (NFA) Convention in Anaheim (CA) was a highlight for several RAFA members.
First of all, the flute community around the world owes a debt of gratitude to NFA founder and first president Mark Thomas, whose incredible vision and leadership birthed this organization in 1972. Thomas currently lives in Charlotte (NC) and is an honorary lifetime member of RAFA. We're also very proud of the following RAFA flutists featured in this year's convention as performing artists and workshop presenters. Thomas Mease, Cathy Laffoon and Rosene Rohrer performed in the Illuminations Flute Orchestra to open the 39th annual international convention. Helen Spielman presented two talks, "Do They Think I'm No Good? Free Yourself from Fear of Judgment" and "Mind Power: The Art of Concentration." Tadeu Coelho performed a recital of Bach chamber works and was also the featured speaker in a Teacher's Breakfast. Nancy Schneeloch-Bingham coordinated the Baroque Flute Masterclass. Chris Abell staffed his company's booth in the Exhibit Hall. Five of Ann Pearce's flute choir arrangements were featured in concerts throughout the convention, and her arrangement of Schumann's Forest Scenes for four flutes and string quartet received a finalist award in this year's Newly Published Music Competition. Other RAFA members spotted in the crowd were Brooks de Wetter-Smith and Mary Boone.
We know you'll want to begin planning ahead for next year's 40th annual NFA Convention, which will be held in our own backyard! The August 11-14, 2011 NFA Convention will take place in the Charlotte (NC) Convention Center. Details at www.nfaonline.org |
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Flute Concerts
Rebecca Troxler & Alma Coefman
Latin Music for Flutes
Saturday, September 18
8:00 pm
Nelson Music Room, East Duke Building, Duke University, Durham
Free
919/660-3333 or http://www.music.duke.edu Kate Steinbeck, Deborah Hollis, & Chris Abell
RAFA event - concert, workshop, and masterclass
Sunday, September 26
2:00 - 5:00 pm
St Philip Lutheran Church, 7304 Falls of Neuse Rd, Raleigh
Free for RAFA members; $10 general admission
919-781-3225 or http://www.raleighflutes.org/RAFA/RAFA_Home_Page.htm Raleigh Flute Choir
with Meredith Flute Ensemble & Silver Fantasy Flute Choir
Sunday, October 24
8:00 pm
Carswell Recital Hall, Meredith College
Donations accepted at the door
919-787-4142 or http://www.raleighflutes.org/RFC/Home.html |
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Performance Anxiety Classes
Presented by Helen Spielman at UNC Wellness Center Meadowmont in Chapel Hill.
No admission charge
Contact 919-966-5500 to register; http://www.uncwellness.com
Positive Self Talk, How to Really Do It! October 13, 6:30 - 8:00 pm
What you say to yourself and how you say it has a strong impact on your ability to achieve your goals. Learn how and why positive thinking is such a powerful tool, understand a clear process for creating specific positive thoughts, and learn to use affirmations to attain focus, persist in practice, and enhance performance.
Mental Visualization for Peak Performance
November 15, 6:30 - 8:00 pm
Mental visualization is used by elite athletes, top CEOs in the business world, and performing artists to achieve their goals in high-pressure performance situations. In this class you will experience visualizations and learn how to specifically target them to YOUR success.
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Second Winds
Our next meeting will be held on Sunday, October 10th, at St. Philip Lutheran Church, 7304 Falls of the Neuse Road (across from Ravenscroft athletic fields). We hope for more participants! Please contact Mary Croghan if you have questions: 919-835-4378 or croghanm@gmail.com
Looking forward to seeing you!!
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Congratulations to our webmaster, Preston Dunn, on the release of his new album, Pray For All Nations. Preston is a contemporary Christian/Gospel artist under the management of Tate Music Group. Falls River Books in North Raleigh will host a CD signing on September 11 from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. His daughter, Michelle Dunn (the other half of our webmaster team, and a RAFA member) will also be in attendance. CDs will be available for purchase (also available on iTunes). Let's all go out on the 11th and show our appreciation for their diligent work on the RAFA website and TUNE IN newsletter. Don't forget to introduce yourselves as RAFA members and get your CD signed by the artist himself. See you there!
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Click on the following ads to view more information about our corporate sponsors.
Visit our sponsor page for a complete listing of RAFA corporate and individual sponsors.
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Feeding Grandma J
By Helen Spielman
So yesterday I feed Grandma J her lunch ------ Grandma J isn't my grandma but that's what everyone calls her and I've known her for 30 years or so. I feed her in her room in the nursing home. I notice she's less alert than last week, but after her meal, she asks to be taken out onto the porch. So I put my flute, music, and stand on her lap, and roll her outside in her wheelchair.
First I play the song she'd asked for, My Happiness, which was her love song with her husband. I found that song for sale on eBay and brought along some books of the 30's and 40's, which I ordered and received in time to take for yesterday's visit.
So I'm sitting there on the porch with my flute in the 94 degree hot and horribly humid Carolina heat, playing this song, feeling rivulets of sweat dripping down my face and every other body part I own. I notice that Grandma J is sitting beside me dressed in not one, but two acrylic knit sweaters, and has a heavy blanket over her legs. During this song, she closes her eyes, and I imagine, or guess, or wonder, whether she's communing with her dear Wesley to whom she was married 72 years, but no, when I finish, I realize she's asleep. I sit still and quiet with her for about five minutes, and she wakes, saying, that was beautiful. I leaf through my 40's book, and play more songs. I don't know most of them, but sightread them anyway, and play the ones I do know, the ones from musicals.
About eight other elderly folks sit on the other end of the porch. I've heard from friends about how, at different nursing homes, the various residents had reacted enthusiastically when they played their flutes. I wondered if these people might get up and dance or something. Nope. These folks completely ignore me. A little later, a "young" man, visiting his mother, waves at me and says, "that was nice, thanks!" I'm too hot to do more than smile at him.
My flute swims all around my chin, and my back hurts from the uncomfortable position I sit in, in an attempt to sit close to Grandma J so she can hear the music with her poor ears. After a half hour or so, I stop playing and wheel her back to her (ahhhhh!) air-conditioned room. She wakes up long enough to thank me and say she loved the music. I tell her I'll be back again and play for her some more. I know that by the time her daughter comes for dinner, she'll have forgotten I was there.
When I call Grandma J's daughter to report in, she says the doctors found a blood clot in her mother's leg the day before, and that her condition is worsening. That's why she was less alert and sleepier.
It's likely that Grandma J won't be around for that much longer. She has 26 grandchildren, and about 10 grown great-grandchildren. Only a few of them have visited or fed her, except on her birthday. None of them knows how to play an instrument. I'll sit in the heat for her again, and bring her the music of her youth and of her beloved. Even with my days so full and busy, what could I possibly do that would be more important than that? How can I express, yet again and again and again, the gratitude for having the humble power to breathe music through the flute, to send into the heart and soul of an angel almost ready to leave for the heaven world?
Copyright 2008 Helen Spielman
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