From Sir James Galway to CU Opera, a week of flutes at CU

By Peter Alexander

There will be many kinds of flutes at the University of Colorado Boulder next week: Magic, golden, and from piccolo to bass.

The central event will be a two-day meeting of flutists at the College of Music, Tuesday and Wednesday, March 21–22. Under the title “Once a Flutist: Rekindling the flutist within,” this free event is open to flutists young and old.

The culminating events will be a masterclass for CU flute students with Sir James Galway —“The Man with the Golden Flute” — at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Grusin Music Hall, and a concert by Galway and his wife, Lady Jeanne Galway, Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Macky Auditorium.

Sir James Galway, who has recorded just about the entire classical flute repertoire, has performed with Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Sir Elton John, and recorded film music for The Lord of Rings, is one of the world’s best known musicians of any genre.

But before all of that gets underway, CU’s Eklund Opera Program will set the scene with Mozart’s Magic Flute, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 17–19, in Macky Auditorium.

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Christina Jennings organized “Once a Flutist” to celebrate her 10th year teaching flute at CU.

“There are a lot of flute players out there,” she says. “I can’t tell you how many times [I’ve met] people who say, ‘I used to play the flute!’ Or ‘My daughter plays the flute!’

“The idea for this festival came from that.”

Jennings will play a recital March 21 for the College of Music “Faculty Tuesdays” series, at 7:30 p.m. in Grusin Hall. But she will not hog the stage: appearing with her will be a flute orchestra of no fewer than 60 players, all on the Grusin stage.

Another guest is literally an out-of-this-world flute player: astronaut Cady Coleman, who took her flutes onto the International Space Station. In 2011 she played live from orbit on National Public Radio.

Now well into his eighth decade, Galway shows no sign of slowing down. “That’s what I do,” he says. “That’s why I’m here: to play the flute.”

The Macky concert will feature both Galways with Cathal Breslin, a young Irish pianist who is accompanying the flutists on their current U.S. tour. The program will include a sonata by Philippe Gaubert, who Galway describes as “The Brahms of the flute.”

“And we’re playing a few little pieces which I’m well know for as encore pieces — we’re putting those in the middle of the program,” he says. “And Carnival of Venice, which everybody knows.”

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The CU production of The Magic Flute will be directed by Herschel Garfein, a Grammy Award-winning librettist, a composer and a stage director. And if you know the rather fantastic plot of The Magic Flute, he wants you to know that he does not see the opera as a fairy tale.

“From the beginning, I’ve seen it as sort of a metaphysical comedy of manners,” Garfein says. “I think it can be taken both more seriously, and more comically, than usual. There’s a very compelling love story between Prince Tamino and Pamina, and there’s also a huge strain of philosophical thought that runs through the opera.”

Read more at Boulder Weekly.

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The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart
University of Colorado Eklund Opera Program
Nicholas Carthy, conductor
Herschel Garfein, stage director
Peter Dean Beck, stage and lighting design

7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 17–18
2 p.m. Sunday, March 19
Macky Auditorium

Tickets

Once a Flutist: Rekindling the flutist within!
Tuesday and Wednesday, March 21–22
CU Imig Music Building

All events free and open to the public, including:

James Galway Master Class
1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, Grusin Hall

Christina Jennings, flute, recital with Eisenhower Elementary School and CU Choirs, CU Family Flute Orchestra
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, Grusin Hall

Lady Galway Master Class
1 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, Macky Auditorium

Full schedule online at http://www.colorado.edu/music/academics/departments/woodwinds/flute-studio/once-flutist

Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway and Friends
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 22
Macky Auditorium

Tickets