Getting a New Flute!!

So many things have been happening the past two weeks that I totally forgot to post last Sunday! It seems that the ball of my freelancing career is FINALLY starting to roll. Now I just need it to pick up speed...and keep going forward...

By far the most exciting thing that I need to report is that I have officially decided to purchase the flute I have been trying out for the past three weeks! Investing in a new instrument is scary but in the short amount of time that I've had it every single person I've played it or a recording of it for have agreed that this is it. Since so many  flutes have been written about in this blog (it has been a long and tiring process) the flute in question is Muramatsu Platinum-clad PTP model with a Tsubasa style headjoint. The craziest part of all this for me is that originally I was looking just for a headjoint and then when flutes were added into the mix I was looking for something much lighter than my heavy wall DS but this flute is actually HEAVIER. It is technically a heavy wall silver DS that is then clad (meaning dipped so it is plated inside and out) in platinum (which is denser and heavier than silver). Now to figure out financing...luckily they will work with me but I hope we can come up with something that will make it affordable for me and my almost non-existent income.

My new baby!!

This past week I had one new flute student start at A+R but prior to that I had only one. She played for Solo and Ensemble yesterday and I am proud to say that she achieved the rating of 1! She has been working so hard. Now for her it is on to States which she has not yet ever gotten to compete at. I'm wishing her all the best as we move forward and for me it was so great to hear that I'm not the only one who has heard the vast improvement she has made since starting lessons in October. As teachers, more specifically private instructors, it can be hard to get real feedback that your techniques are working. Each individual student has their own potential that needs to be unlocked and this makes it hard to really see your total effectiveness at times. Seeing her text and knowing the pride that she feels from achieving this goal is so gratifying and I hope that in the coming years I get to help many other students to realize their own potential as musicians.

In the vein of teaching I have been hired as the Flute Technician at Jefferson High School in Monroe, MI. I was out there the past two weeks coaching chamber groups and a few soloists towards their solo and ensemble which was also yesterday. Hopefully they all did well! The band director Byran, who I met through my church choir, has expressed that he would like me to come out once a week to begin running a "Flute Ensemble" and he also is going to try to line up students for me. I really hope that this all works out as I really need more things like this so I can start to save up to pay back loans, pay off this new flute and hopefully move out on my own. Now that I have a better idea of pricing and how to really start to "sell" the idea of having a coach (or even a new ensemble...flute players sometimes really get into flute choir) I need to go back to emailing band directors to try and get my foot in the door. Wish me luck!!

I have been invited to submit recordings for the Seoul Philharmonic's Second Principal Flute audition. This is an honor and now comes the grueling task of trying to find and select recorded performances of myself (mostly in orchestra) that I feel represent how I sound now. I find that so much has changed with my sound and playing even in the last few months that I don't have too many recordings that give an accurate representation of myself currently. Recently I did record the Eneso "Cantabile et Presto" to send into Brevard so I at least have one current recording. Hopefully I can get a few things dug up from when I was at SFCM...I did so little performing with the Conservatory Orchestra and the outside performances that I did were either not recorded or are not something I may be able to get a hold of. Fingers crossed that I can find enough to maybe be granted a live audition or even a trial! I'm not sure that I really want to work and live over seas but a job is a job!

Coming up this week: a lesson with David Buck (Principal Flute of Detroit), a small audition for Joel Tse (Principal Flute of the Toledo Symphony) and my National Orchestral Institute audition.