N E W S L E T T E R

The New York Flute ClubN E W S L E T T E R

I N T H I S I S S U E

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Renaissance Men, Baroque Flutists: John Solum and Richard Wyton..............................1

by Don Hulbert

From the President ......................2My Vacation

Member Profile ............................3Lynn Nicole Cunningham

A n n o u n c e m e n t sFlute Happenings..................................3Next Ensembles Get-Together ............5

February 2007

E arly this past November I sat down for a chatover lunch with flutists John Solum and RichardWyton, cofounders of the Hanoverian Ensemble.

Both combine a great love of the flute with an interestin historically informed performance (aka “HIP”),

and both have had fascinating careers andlives. In the interests of full disclosure, JohnSolum was one of the judges the year I wonthe NYFC Young Artist Competition (1982),and I began studying baroque flute with himshortly thereafter.

DON HULBERT: As I recall from our les-sons, Mr. Solum, you studied withWilliam Kincaid and went to Princeton.JOHN SOLUM: Yes. At Princeton [AB,1957] I studied musicology under ArthurMendel, who was at that time the great-est Bach authority in this country. Andalmost every Saturday during those fouryears I took the train to Philadelphia formy lessons with Mr. Kincaid. He washappy with that, as long as I played mylessons perfectly! You didn't make mis-takes with him.

DH: One dropped note and that was it?JS: Yes. He would close the book andsay, “You’re not prepared.” So it makesconcerts easy, because Kincaid isn’tthere to close the book. For what it’s

In Concert

The Hanoverian Ensemble

John Solum, baroque fluteRichard Wyton, baroque fluteArthur Fiacco, baroque cello

Kent Tritle, harpsichord

Sunday, February 25, 2007, 5:30 pmYamaha Piano Salon, 689 Fifth Avenue

(entrance between Fifth and Madison on 54th Street)

Sonata en Trio in B minor, . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jacques HotteterreLivre I, Oeuvre III (1712) (1674–1763)

Suite No. 11 in G major (1721) . . . . . . . . . . . .Michel de la Barrefor two flutes (c.1675–1745)

“La Françoise” from “Les Nations” . . . . . . . . . .François Couperin(1688–1733)

Trio Sonata in G major, BWV 1039 . . . . . .Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

Epigrams and Canons (1989) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ezra Ladermanfor two baroque flutes (b. 1924)

Trio Sonata in A major . . . . . . . . . . . . .Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767)

Program subject to change

RENAISSANCE MEN, BAROQUE FLUTISTS:JOHN SOLUM AND RICHARD WYTON

Interview by Don Hulbert

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THE NEW YORK FLUTE CLUB INC.

2006–2007Board of Directors

David Wechsler, PresidentJayn Rosenfeld, First Vice PresidentArdith Bondi, Second Vice PresidentJeanne Wilson, Recording SecretaryKeith Bonner, Membership SecretaryEdward Wolf, Treasurer

Katherine Fink Karla MoeSusan Friedlander Seth RosenthalSvjetlana Kabalin Rie SchmidtFred Marcusa Stefani Starin

Nancy Toff

Advisory BoardJeanne Baxtresser Robert LangevinHarold Jones Gerardo Levy

Marya Martin

Past PresidentsGeorges Barrère .................... 1920–1944John Wummer ........................ 1944–1947Milton Wittgenstein .............. 1947–1952Mildred Hunt Wummer ........ 1952–1955Frederick Wilkins .................. 1955–1957Harry H. Moskovitz ................ 1957–1960Paige Brook ............................ 1960–1963Mildred Hunt Wummer ...... 1963–1964Maurice S. Rosen ................ 1964–1967Harry H. Moskovitz .............. 1967–1970Paige Brook ............................ 1970–1973Eleanor Lawrence ................ 1973–1976Harold Jones .......................... 1976– 1979Eleanor Lawrence ................ 1979–1982Paige Brook ............................ 1982–1983John Solum ............................ 1983–1986Eleanor Lawrence ................ 1986–1989Sue Ann Kahn ...................... 1989–1992Nancy Toff .............................. 1992–1995Rie Schmidt ............................ 1995–1998Patricia Spencer...................... 1998–2001Jan Vinci .................................. 2001–2002Jayn Rosenfeld........................ 2002–2005

NewsletterKatherine Saenger, Editor115 Underhill RoadOssining, NY 10562914-762-8582klsaenger@yahoo.com

Sue Carlson, Layout/Production789 Westminster RoadBrooklyn, NY 11230718-258-5325scarlson@wwnorton.com

www.nyfluteclub.org

Copyright © 2007 by The New York Flute Club Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

For the longest time I was saving up to take a reallyinteresting vacation, and I finally did! Let me tell youabout it. I just returned from the little-known country of

Musicus, in the faraway continent of Artasia, where the peo-ple pride themselves on their love of classical music aboveall else. It is a fascinating place. From the minute your planetouches down at the airport, you are bombarded with adsand imagery concerning music. Famous musicians are seenon billboards selling everything from wine to watches tounderwear! I was amused by two ads in particular, with cap-tions that read “My time is so perfect, and it’s partly because

I have a Framé timepiece!” and “My sound is not the only thing that’s velvetysmooth . . .” Even retired well-known artists are selling “mature” products to theaging members of the population. As you travel to the capital, you see lots ofpickup sports games happening all over the city. The kids (and some adults) playjust for spare change, and there is often a hat, or someone working the crowdbetween plays. On the buses and trains there are often two or three teenagersplaying a little ball game for money. It’s sad, really, because they usually are notvery good, although once in while you do spot a talented player.

After I checked into my hotel I bought a paper. I read the back where the con-cert listings were. There must have been 15 pages of listings! There were a feweditorials and articles about which player was going to which orchestra, and whateffect that might have on the season. I was disappointed to read about the steroidand performance-enhancing drug scandals, however. It seems that some veryfamous soloists were caught “doping.” It enabled a lot of them to play passagesfaster and more accurately than was formerly considered possible. It was espe-cially embarrassing at the International Performing Olympics, where the alteredphysical appearance of some of the contestants was obvious. I had never seensuch long and muscular fingers or such deformed lips! Were blood tests reallyneeded to confirm something was awry? When interviewed, some performers’bravura bordered on maniacal! One of the really well known flutists, Percy “NeverMiss” Kiabolosvenskilldugélli, was ranting about how he’d be back if he waschucked from competition. And how everyone would pay! EVERYONE!! Nowwhen I listen to him on my iPod, I wonder if he was doped when he nailed thatpassage at the end of Ingolf Dahl’s Variations on a Swedish Folktune.

As sad as the income disparity is between rich and poor in Musicus, it is stillgratifying to see the living that can be made at the top of the music profession.The orchestras and opera companies enjoy wide popularity from all segments ofthe population, regardless of socioeconomic position. People pay absurdly inflatedprices to go to concerts. The average salary for an orchestral musician in Musicusstarts at around $2 million a year, with solo and principal chairs running as high as$15 million a year! In the newer concert halls, the wealthy patrons have built spe-cial mezzanine boxes for themselves. Like mini hotel suites, really, they includebanks of video monitors for watching several musical events at once, and specialzoom lens controls for close-ups of singers when they go for high notes. There arerefrigerators for cold beer, double beds for those really long operas, and showers.Why, you could live in one of those boxes! There is also a lucrative undergroundeconomy of wagering that goes on for competitions. There are odds on favoritesfor accurate rhythm and technique, but every so often a newcomer long shot winsand a career is born.

The sports industry in Musicus, on the other hand, is rather pathetic. There areteams that play the same sports that we have here, but the average person doesn’tshow much interest. Sports are merely a way to stay physically fit and have a littlefun. They are taught haphazardly in the schools and most people feel that theyhave little educational value. Personal exercise is much more acceptable as a fit-ness regimen. The salaries at the top of the sports profession are about $150,000 ayear—for a baseball player who bats .450, or a basketball player who can score 50points a game. Many teams need private philanthropy and government support tokeep solvent because ticket sales can’t cover expenses.

I really enjoyed my vacation in Musicus, and after my term as president of theNew York Flute Club is up, I’m seriously considering moving there.

My Vacationby David Wechsler

From thePresident

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FREE to current NYFC members, this section lists upcoming per-formances by members; flute-related contests, auditions, andmasterclasses organized/sponsored by members; and briefdescriptions of members’ new recordings, sheet music, and books.Send submissions to the Newsletter Editor.

FREE to current NYFC members, this section lists upcoming per-formances by members; flute-related contests, auditions, andmasterclasses organized/sponsored by members; and briefdescriptions of members’ new recordings, sheet music, and books.Send submissions to the Newsletter Editor.

Thursday 1:30 pmThe OMNI Ensemble, with DAVIDWECHSLER, flute, Deborah Sepe,

cello, Jim Lahti, piano, in a program includingJ.S. Bach’s Suite in B minor and piano quar-tets by Fauré and Copland.

• Center for the Arts at the College of StatenIsland, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island,NY. • Admission: $15 general, $10 students/sen-iors. • Info/reservations, call 718-859-8649 orvisit www.omniensemble.org.

Saturday 8:00 pmThe OMNI Ensemble, with DAVIDWECHSLER, flute, in same program

as February 8.

• Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, 58 Sev-enth Avenue (corner of Lincoln Place), Brook-lyn, NY. • Admission: $15 general, $10students/seniors. • Info/reservations, call 718-859-8649 or visit www.omniensemble.org.

Sunday 2:00 pmDuo Del Norte with SHARONLEVIN, flute, and Gene Pino, guitar,

performing a mix of baroque, classical, Latinand popular music including Chorhinos byAbreu and others, Ecuadorian mestizo music,Fauré’s Pavane and Chopin’s Variations on aTheme by Rossini.

• Westport Public Library, Arnold BernhardPlaza, 20 Jesup Road, Westport, CT. • Admis-sion is free. • Info, call 203-291-4840 or visitwww.westportlibrary.org.

Sunday 4:00 pmThe Kaiser Woodwind Quintet withLAURA KAREL GEORGE, flute, will

perform a world premiere of NJ composerLouis Gordon’s “Movements,” compositionsby Leon Karel and Franz Danzi, Ronald Rose-man’s Renaissance Suite, and transcriptions ofGershwin, Respighi, and Cervantes.

• St. Cassian Roman Catholic Church, 187Belleview Avenue, Upper Montclair, NJ. •Admission: $15 suggested donation. • Info,call 973-744-2850.

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Employment: Principal flutist and wood-wind group leader, United States MilitaryAcademy (USMA) Band at West Point;private flute instructor, second flute andassistant principal, Newburgh Symphony;freelance flutist.

A recent recital/performance: A Novem-ber 2006 concert at Ithaca College, per-forming music of Sousa, Jager, Grainger,Khachaturian, and Gorb with the USMABand.

Career highlight(s): Solo performancewith the USMA Band in Franz and KarlDoppler’s Valse di Bravura at the 1996NFA convention in NYC; the USMABicentennial Celebration Concert atCarnegie Hall with the same band andguest host Walter Cronkite in March2002. Annual chamber music concertsand solo appearances with the USMABand (1980–present) including perform-ances of concertos by Ibert, Mozart, andVivaldi.

Current flute(s): A 1973 silver Haynes(modified in 1994 by David Williams,with assistance from Dr. Emil Pascarelli,to fit her hand) used with a Zalo-Cooperheadjoint.

Influential flute teachers: On flute: RobertCole (in college) and Eric Hoover (ingraduate school); summer studies withMarcel Moyse and William Bennett, andpostgraduate studies with Samuel Baron,Julius Baker, and Thomas Nyfenger.Other training: Alexander technique withDebra Kaplan and Ann Mathews (1980s)and classes with performance coach andsports psychologist Alma Thomas(2001–present).

High schools: Walt Whitman High Schoolin Bethesda, MD (for grades 10 and 11)and Sturgeon Bay High School in Stur-geon Bay, WI (for grade 12).

Degree(s): BM in applied flute perform-ance (University of Wisconsin-Madison,1978) and MM in flute performance (Ari-zona State University, 1980).

Most notable and/or personally satisfyingaccomplishments: As a parent: perform-ing with her son, Kevin Ray, in a duorecital (with Kevin on alto sax and voice,February 2002) and with the USMA Bandat West Point (with Kevin as guest bari-tone vocal soloist, August 2006). As ateacher: seeing her students go on tomajor music schools and become musicteachers themselves. She says, “Duringlessons I try to get my students to thinkmethodically. They develop problem-solving skills, and learn to set long-rangegoals with structure and flexibility. Wealso stress the difference between prac-tice and performance: by letting go offears and judgment during performancesyou can free yourself to experience suc-cess and enjoyment.”

Favorite practice routines: Lynn startswith Feldenkrais and Alexander bodystretches (without the flute) and thendoes long tones and the orange juicewarm-up (from Paula Robison’s FluteWarm-up Book), followed by one or twopieces from Moyse’s Tone Developmentthrough Interpretation (the same onesevery day to keep tabs on her sound). Alot of interval training (especially somefavorite combinations of scales andarpeggios passed on to her by WilliamBennett) for lip flexibility, intonation,and timbral balance; and daily sight-reading (to prepare for rehearsal/per-formance situations in which she maynot have the music ahead of time).

Other interests: Wine tasting, travel(Italy, Spain, Alaska, Bermuda, Mexico,Caribbean, Austria, and Germany), run-ning and walking for fitness, and hiking(Hudson Valley and during travels);learning from singers by listening to liveperformances.

Advice to NYFC members: Remember thatsuccess as a musician requires passion,talent, intellect, and honest commitment.When setting goals, don’t forget thevalue of good health and having workyou enjoy.

Member ProfileLynn Nicole Cunningham

NYFC membersince 2006

FLUTE

HAPPENINGS

Flute Happenings DeadlinesIssue Deadline Mail date*March 2007 01/25/07 02/22/07April 2007 03/15/07 04/12/07May 2007 04/05/07 05/03/07*Projected

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Sunday 3:00 pmCARLA AULD, flute, and LindaSweetman-Waters, piano, in

“Romance Around the World,” a program ofmusic with origins in France (Fauré, Morceaude Concours), Germany (Schubert, “TrockneBlumen” Variations), Russia (Rachmaninoff,Vocalise), and Italy (Mercadante, Concerto inE minor).

• Ridgewood Public Library, 125 North MapleAvenue, Ridgewood, NJ. Admission is free •Info, visit www.ridgewoodlibrary.org or call201-670-5600.

Sunday 8:30 pmFlutist MICHAEL PARLOFF andfriends will perform music of

Schulhoff (Sonata for flute and piano),Debussy (Bilitis), Schubert (“Trockne Blu-men” Variations), Bach (Sonata in G minor,BWV 1020), and Jongen (Concert à cinq forflute, string trio, and harp, Op. 71).

• Weill Recital Hall, 154 West 57th Street, NYC.• Admission: $35 general/$15 students/seniors.• Info, call MidAmerica Productions at 212-239-4699 or email mwaymire@midamerica-music.com.

Wednesday 7:00-9:00 pm“Swinging on a Star,” a masterclassby Paula Robison featuring love

songs and melodies TBA.

• Diller-Quaile School of Music, 24 East 95thStreet, NYC. • Admission (auditors): $30 gen-eral, $15 students. • Info, call Heather Holdenat 212-369-1484 x26, or email hholden@diller-quaile.org.

Sunday 3:00 pmTARA HELEN O’CONNOR andPATRICIA SPENCER in a duo

recital with Fred Hammond, harpsichord, andGreg Hesselink, cello. Works by J.S. Bach,W.F. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Elliott Carter, Gof-fredo Petrassi, and Robert Aitken.

• Olin Hall, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. • Admission is free. • Info, visitwww.patriciaspencerflute.com.

Monday 6:00 pmDa Capo Chamber Players (PATRI-CIA SPENCER, flute) with Chinary

Ung, guest composer, in a Composers’ Forumpresented by the Juilliard School. Programfeatures Mr. Ung’s Oracle (written for the DaCapo Chamber Players), Luminous Spirals (forflute, guitar, and cello), Spiral VI, and . . . StillLife After Death (with Lucy Shelton, soprano).

• Morse Recital Hall at the Juilliard School, Lin-coln Center, 65th Street and Broadway, NYC. •Admission is free. • Info, visit www.patriciaspencerflute.com.

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worth, he only closed the book on metwice in four years.

DH: Wow!JS: And that was early on, you under-stand, before I knew what the standardswere. But that’s the standard of concerts.When you play in an orchestra, howmany mistakes are you allowed to make?

DH: I see what you mean.JS: So it was part of the training, Kincaidwas doing me a favor by being tough.But at the same time you never left alesson less than inspired. He wouldorchestrate his lessons so that when youleft the room you were on a high.

DH: Sam Baron called him the “Ameri-can Taffanel.”JS: Really?

DH: Yes, because of the variety. Look atall the people who were Kincaid studentsand how differently they played . . .JS: This is the way any great teacherworks. You shouldn’t come out soundinglike the teacher, you should come outwith the tools to sound like yourself. Idon’t ever remember Kincaid saying“Play like me.” Every Kincaid studentsounded different.

DH: They did, you can start namingthem: Julius Baker, Harold Bennett,Jacob Berg, Elaine Shaffer, MauriceSharp . . .JS: Mariano . . .

DH: A whole list of people. Frances Blais-dell studied with him, too. Everyone cameout with these extremely differentapproaches to the instrument, how toplay, how to teach, what was importantmusically, and somehow all came fromthe same source.JS: You could never predict how Kincaidwas going to teach. I remember when Iwas going to do Walter Piston’s Sonatafor flute and piano, and I knew one ofthe Curtis students had taken a lessonwith him on that piece a couple ofmonths before. I [got her] to tell mewhat he had talked about, but when Iwent in for my lesson, it was completelydifferent—he had other things to talkabout.

DH: So there were no Cliff Notes for hislessons.JS: He didn’t teach by rote, he taughtcreatively, and each lesson was a differ-ent experience. Sometimes he wouldfocus in on one aspect of playing ormusicianship and it would go throughthe whole lesson from the moment you

started playing. He would feature a par-ticular aspect so you’d see how thisthing applied in many different contexts.But you could never predict how he wasgoing to teach you, except that you hadto play all the right notes! Of course ifyou had a technical problem, somethingin the Prokofiev for example, he wouldwork with you on it. He wouldn’t closethe book because you couldn’t nail thehigh D’s, he’d have a creative solution.

DH: And your studies prior to Kincaid?JS: In Minneapolis, I studied with AntonWinkler, who was a Curtis graduate anda Kincaid pupil; he was in the Min-neapolis Symphony. So I got all of theAndersen etudes under my belt before Iplayed them for Kincaid.

DH: Richard, what about you?RICHARD WYTON: [Gesturing to JohnSolum] You’re looking at my main influ-ence, right across the table. I actuallyhad a fairly late start on the flute (whenI was 14) with Henry Zlotnik. [N.B. RW’sflute studies were preceded by a briefprofessional career as a child singer.]

DH: Didn’t Robert Dick study with him?RW: That’s right. In fact, he was the onewho referred me to Henry Zlotnik. Mydad was the organist at St. John theDivine, and he had a series of what hecalled West Door Concerts. Robert Dickplayed one, probably when he was amaster’s candidate at Yale. That was justthe time that my parents were lookingfor a flute teacher for me.

JS: And for college?RW: I went to SUNY Albany [BA, 1979],and studied with Irvin Gilman, [another]Kincaid student. At the time I was actu-ally more interested in keyboard instru-ment technology and makingharpsichords. They had a full-time cura-tor for their 45 Steinways and two harp-sichords. I took a couple of his coursesin organology and then in my last coupleof years I was his assistant; I pretty muchtuned a piano every day.

DH: Wow. And then?RW: I worked at Patelson’s, which iswhere I met my wife. We were servingthe same sentence; I worked in chambermusic, she was in piano methods.[Shortly thereafter] I moved to Connecti-cut [December 1979].

DH: Mr. Solum, Sandra Miller told melast year that you were one of the firstbaroque flutists she heard perform liveand how much that had inspired her[NYFC Newsletter, December 2005]. Whatdrew you to the instrument?JS: I was living in England, and I got to

Solum/Wyton (cont’d from page 1)

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Saturday 8:00 pmDON HULBERT, flute soloist, per-forming with Ensemble du Monde

in a program including Mozart’s Concerto forflute and harp, Jolivet’s Concerto for fluteand strings, and Ravel’s Introduction andAllegro and Le Tombeau de Couperin.

• Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, NYC. • Admission: $30. • Info, call 212-501-3303.

Sunday 3:00 pmMICHAEL LADERMAN, flute, andJudith Lynn Stillman, piano, will

perform a program of works by Fauré, Bar-ber, Poulenc, Enesco, and Reinecke.

• Christ and St. Stephen’s Church, 120 West69th Street, NYC. • Admission: $10 general, $5 students/seniors. • Info, visit www.fluteperformer.com or email m.a.laderman@gmail.com.

Wednesday 7:30–11:30 pmThe Patrizia Scascitelli Quartet withJAMIE BAUM, flute, Patrizia

Scascitelli, piano, Bob Bowen, bass, andSylvia Cuenca, drums, in a program of jazzstandards.

• Trumpets Jazz Club/Restaurant, 6 DepotSquare, Montclair, NJ. • Admission: $10cover/$5 minimum. • Info, call 973-744-2600.

Monday 8:00 pmThe New York New Music Ensem-ble with JAYN ROSENFELD, flute,

will perform Bernard Rands’ Memo 4 (forsolo flute) and two sextets, Donald Martino’sNotturno and Steve Mackey’s Micro-Concertofor percussion.

• Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street,NYC. • Admission: $20 general, $10students/seniors. • Info, call 212-501-3303.

Monday 8:00 pmThe Sylvan Winds with SVJET-LANA KABALIN, flute, will per-

form William Mayer’s Yankee Doodle Fanfare,Rami Levin’s Danças Brasileiras, Max Lif-chitz’s Vignettes, Cynthia Folio’s Aphorisms,and David Diamond’s Quintet.

• Christ and St. Stephen’s Church, 120 West69th Street (between Broadway and Columbus),NYC. • Admission is free. • Info, call 212-663-7566.

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meet the Dolmetsch family. [N.B. Visitwww.dolmetsch.com for more about thislegendary clan of musicians and instru-ment makers.] That’s about where earlymusic was at that time. In the early ’70sI actually made a recording [for RCA]with the Dolmetsch twins, Jeanne andMarguerite, on modern flute. They [sug-gested that I] pick up baroque flute. So,I bought one from Friedrich von Huene,put the fingering chart on the left side ofthe music stand, and the Handel sonatason the right.

DH: So you never had any particularformal instruction?JS: Never. At about the same time, AlbertFuller wrote me a letter asking if I couldpossibly think about taking up baroqueflute. What do you know? [Encourage-ment] was coming from both sides ofthe Atlantic. Then I began doing AstonMagna concerts with Albert Fulleraround 1976.

DH: You were certainly in the vanguard.JS: I learned from other instrumentalists,like Michel Piguet (baroque oboe andrecorder), Jaap Schroder (violin), andJohn Hsu (viola da gamba), and alsofrom Bernard Krainis (one of thefounders of the New York Pro Musica).And of course from Albert Fuller.

DH: I remember going to the AstonMagna Academy in 1983 and sitting inon rehearsals. Albert Fuller was amazing.JS: He was always concerned about theemotion of the music. It was never tech-nique, it was the feeling.

DH: He once told you to “ride the waves”when playing a musical line?JS: Yes. For a great teacher, Albert wasnever academic in his approach. Theproof was how does it sound, and doesit move me? These were terms that heused over and over again. If it didn’tmove him, it wasn’t good enough. Hecringed at academic type performerswho just played notes—and there werea lot of them around at that time.

DH: There still are . . .JS: If you started to say, “Well, Quantzsays . . . ,” Albert would say “Oh, screwQuantz!” Ed Reilly, who was the transla-tor of the Quantz treatise and taught atVassar for many, many years, used tosay that you could look around [in vari-ous] treatises and find something toback up any approach. You really haveso many choices that you end up play-ing your own way.

DH: In my lessons with you, I nevercame away with “No, no, no, you haveto do it THIS way.” But there were some

general precepts you were communicat-ing, for instance, the primacy of the barline in how to shape the musical line.You stressed that the harmonic motionwas key, and that it very often that coin-cided with the bar line. What are yourthoughts on this, Richard?RW: I totally agree. I can think of oneexample, the Corrente of Bach’s A minorpartita, which is in 3/4, where John justsaid make those bars into a 3/2measure.JS: When it goes into 3/2, then it’s aCourante. That’s Bach, breaking rulesand having fun. [Incidentally,] what wenow call the Partita in A minor wasknown as a sonata when I played it forKincaid. He didn’t think it was by Bach,because it wasn’t like the other sonatas.So that got me going to study what thepiece was. It had been found aroundthe end of World War I, an extra thing atthe end of a manuscript of partitas andsonatas for solo violin. Then I began towonder why did Bach call some of themsonatas and some of them partitas? Thesonatas had abstract movements andone movement was always in anotherkey, a related key, usually the slowmovement. The partitas were alwaysdance movements and they were all inthe same key. It seemed obvious to methat’s what our solo piece by Bach was,though it was only four movements. Inthe source, there was no title to it—itwas cut off, but people had sort of fig-ured out that it said “solo pour la flûtetraversière.” But it is a partita in itsshortest manifestation. I published thatin a magazine then called WoodwindWorld. And that kind of got that around.RW: When was that, John?JS: About 1959 or maybe 1960.RW: I’m just curious, because when Istudied it with Henry Zlotnik, the firstthing he did was cross out “Sonata” onthe top and write “Partita.”JS: Anyway, that got things going, andby the time Barenreiter published it intheir complete Bach edition, it wascalled “Partita.” [We now think] that Bachwrote it [around 1720] for [Pierre-Gabriel]Buffardin, who would have probablybeen the only flute player around thattime who could have played it.

DH: I heard Christopher Krueger say thatBuffardin may have gone to Turkey withhis patron and been trained as a glassblower. So he would have known how todo circular breathing.JS: I’ve never heard that. My approach to

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the piece is that you have to takebreaths! First of all an Allemande is adance piece for which dance historianshave never discovered any steps. Bydefault then, they think it may be an armdance, where you’re presenting yourself.

DH: Like a praeludium . . .JS: Exactly. If you’re looking for a metro-nomic approach, you’re looking in thewrong place. I’ve always said that in thisAllemande, the rhythm is not metro-nomic, it’s harmonic, and you have tosee how often the harmony changes.Then, you’ve got the rhythm.

DH: Richard, how did you get interestedin baroque flute? Did it have anything todo with your interest in historickeyboards?RW: Yes, absolutely. In fact, I decided Iwanted to explore the baroque flutewhen I was still in college. I just neverreally found the right opportunity, andsomewhere along the line I heard a fewperformances. I think I heard Johnin 1985 with Aston Magna, and thenat the 1986 NFA convention in NewYork. My wife, Barbara, who is verygood at taking care of things (and aflutist herself, playing with the Nor-walk Symphony at the time) foundJohn there and introduced him tome. I had a four-key Milhouse and hadbeen working on my own learning thefingerings, but John took me over to TomPrescott’s exhibit, pointed at a flute, andtold me to buy it. When I had my firstflute lesson with him, I played the Han-del G major or something and thought Ihad it all figured out. He said, “Yousound just like a modern flute player.”That’s how I got started. I think the firsttime I played it in public was maybe thenext year for a Connecticut Early MusicFestival benefit. John learned prettyquickly that I tuned harpsichords, and soI was drafted! In fact, I’ll be tuning theinstrument for our concert. I call it beinga full-service flute player.

DH: Just for a moment, I want to turn tothe subject of vibrato. Mr. Solum, it wasyou who introduced me to the idea thatvibrato should be viewed as an orna-ment. How did you come to that way ofthinking?JS: In the beginning I used vibrato, too,but then you get the confidence toexplore other expressive means. Some-one once asked Michel Piguet, “Do youplay with or without vibrato,” referringto his recorder and baroque oboe play-ing. He said, “I don’t play without any-

thing!” Anything is possible—you canuse finger vibrato on baroque flute (“flat-tement”), which is absolutely correct.

DH: I also seem to remember your sayingthat baroque flute takes much less airpressure, making many subtle things alot easier than they would be on a mod-ern flute.JS: They are two different instruments.

DH: Richard, was playing withoutvibrato a challenge for you?RW: Not really. My earliest musical back-ground was as a cathedral chorister, andthat was all straight tone. I was alreadyexploring that right from the beginningof when I played flute. I already had inmind that I didn’t want to use vibratoworking on Handel sonatas. I used toget a bit of flack from my teachers at[the High School of] Music and Art.JS: Of course, it makes intonation mucheasier, when everybody’s always vibrat-ing. Ormandy all those years he con-ducted the Philadelphia Orchestra, theminute he began to hear out-of-tune

playing, he would summon up morevibrato from the strings.

DH: It covers up a multitude of sins.JS: I think ultra-modern flute, the avant-garde flute, you use much less vibrato,because you’re working towards othergoals like tone color—to coat everythingwith vibrato is just a distraction.

DH: I think that Chris Krueger spoke tothis at the 1987 NFA convention in St.Louis. He said that what impelled him tobaroque flute was [a desire] for some-thing beyond the “all-purpose” orchestralprettiness that he’d learned, or whatRobert Willoughby used to call beingserved “five courses of cherry pie.”JS: Don Peck had a name for it—genericflute playing.

DH: Richard, how did you come to beinvolved with Music Minus One?RW: My wife and I also run a music con-tracting business, and a bass player Iknow was working for them as an engi-neer. At some point they decided to re-release some old LPs or cassettes as CDsand they needed it twice, the secondtime with someone playing over it askind of a demo. He was in charge ofthat project, and so he just asked me if Iwanted to do it. I said sure!

DH: As they say, network, network, net-work. What was it like?RW: It’s been a while . . . typically theywere rather old recordings and not soeasy to play along with. Sometimes theflute was on there, but not in tune (acringe-worthy experience!); other timesthe tempi of the movements were some-times driven by the amount of timeavailable.

DH: Just like those early recordings . . .JS: Like 78s, you know, five minutesmaximum.

DH: Are you doing much on the modernflute?RW: A fair amount of gigging [throughour contracting business] . . . music weorganize for various church things andstuff like that.

DH: I know you teach privately . . .RW: And sixth grade instrumental musicin a public school, too. This year I haveabout 25 flute players in addition to mytrombones and clarinets.

DH: Some people think that theworld is overpopulated with flutists.RW: The issue now is saxo-phone—way too manysaxophones.

DH: Really? Everyone wants to beBranford Marsalis?

RW: Or Bill Clinton. But the plus side ofthat is that the attrition rate is very high.You get a lot started that drop out. Mycollege teacher, Gilman, was originally aclarinet/sax player, jazz player. Thenunder the GI Bill, he went to Curtis andstudied with Kincaid.

DH: How did the Hanoverian Ensemblecome into being?JS: Richard and I were both at the Con-necticut Early Music Festival [which IgorKipnis and I created]. Richard was theexecutive director, and I was the artisticdirector. We left and formed theHanoverian Ensemble around . . .RW: In 2000.JS: We created it as a nonprofit founda-tion, since you can’t do anything inmusic without raising money. That’swhat it is, a foundation to raise money.

DH: Can you remind me where thename comes from?JS: We say this on every recording—thename relates to the time of the Hanover-ian Kings of England, 1714–1837 [GeorgeI through William IV].

DH: Any time period of particularinterest?JS: Well, our de la Barre CD is the 1720s,our Bachanalia CD has the W.F. Bach

Solum/Wyton (cont’d from page 5)

“In the beginning I used vibrato, too, butthen you get the confidence to explore

other expressive means.”

NYFC FEB07.FINAL 2/1/07 6:13 PM Page 6

February 2007 — 7

duos, and we could go all the way toSchubert and Beethoven. Listen to ourrecordings.

DH: Any other performances this season?JS: Just before the NYFC, we play at Vas-sar College [where JS still teaches], andour harpsichordist Kent Tritle will play asolo J.S. Bach piece on their new milliondollar organ.

DH: Anything else later in the season youwant to get the word out about?JS: Really, no. Right now we’re gung-ho tomake records with this local record com-pany [MSR Classics (www.msrcd.com)]we just found. They’re terrific—honest,hardworking, and they’ve got the rightdistribution. So, you have to kind of gowith the flow, when you have an oppor-tunity like this.RW: One thing that we learned in doingthe Connecticut Early Music Festival, isthat it is as much work to raise money toput on a festival as it is to do a recording,but the recording lasts. The concert isover and then the money is all gone andthe music is all gone, and now you haveto push the same old rock up the sameold hill. So here we push the rock up thehill, but we have something lasting.JS: I think the reward comes when youget good reviews and then somebodycalls from Boston and says, “Gee, I justheard you on WGBH.” Oh, really? Whatdid I play? And you get heard withouthaving to go there. When you’re on arecorded broadcast, it’ll be Simon Rattleconducting the Berlin Philharmonic, JohnSolum and Richard Wyton playing aGrétry duet for baroque flute, and thenLeonard Bernstein, so you get tucked inwith big names. And some of the peoplewho [listen to] these radio programs [willend up buying] the record.

DH: Who knows, maybe Glenn Gouldwas right . . .JS: That’s right, he gave up performing inpublic completely.

DH: Do you have any advice onfundraising?JS: To fundraise you need budgets, youneed to know how much you’re going toraise and you need to have a project toraise the money for. And then you juststart raising the money and you keepgoing until you get it all. Isn’t that theway it is, Richard? You just keep going.. . . One of the rules I have aboutfundraising is to never hold a grudgeagainst anyone if they don’t contribute.Sometimes people have other priorities,sometimes they forget. If you let personalfeeling enter into it, it won’t be long

before you won’t have any contributors.

DH: Any nonmusical interests we shouldknow about?JS: Richard is a spectacular pilot and aglider. And I’ve been saving WPA art-works—big-time rescue missions ofmurals that have been abused andpainted over, and so on. Tell him whatyou did yesterday.RW: I had my son’s scout troop at theairport on Saturday for glider rides—Idid 17 in one day.JS: There’s no engine. You’re towed up,and then you’re left to the elements, andyou just hope you’ll make it back . . .RW: No, John. [laughter] You know that’snot true. Plus, there is an aspect of myflying that connects with my interest inhistorical performance practice. My pas-sion is for vintage gliders, typically madeof wood and fabric; I own a woodensailplane made in Germany in the mid1960s. In a world where most flutistsplay on metal and most sailplane pilotsfly in fiberglass, I do both in the mediumof wood.JS: You’ve had your glider’s licensesince . . .RW: Age 16.

DH: And those murals?JS: Well, they’re all by one artist namedJames Daugherty. I never knew him—hedied in 1974. But he painted murals inConnecticut, Illinois and Ohio in the ’20sand ’30s. Some were missing, someneeded to be cleaned. I’ve actually beenresponsible for saving or restoring ten ofthem. The first one I discovered was ona plaster wall in a school in Darien, CT,and had been painted over. It had beenlost from the consciousness of theschool, and I came there looking for it.RW: And the key was the tile. Remember?JS: Yes. I had a photograph of the roomwith the mural. It was a kindergartenroom, where there were Delft tiles withanimals or birds on them, where the kidshung their coats. The little kids couldrecognize the bird and know that “mycoat hangs with duck.” That’s how Iknew this was the wall, and sure enoughthere was a mural under the green paint.

DH: Wow.JS: So far we have raised about three-quarters of a million dollars for this. Thelatest one is going to be installed in theStamford, CT, library. I use the fundrais-ing skills I learned in music for this. Itake charge and just keep hammeringaway until the job gets done. I’m veryquiet, I never raise my voice, but I con-vince them that the work is important. In

Cleveland, there were four murals in onetheater, and it cost $200,000—four pro-fessional restorers working eight or tenmonths just to clean off the old varnishand put on fresh varnish. I went outthere, showed them what needed to bedone, and made them do it. That’s prettygood, huh?

DH: Yes, I’d say it is. Looks like you haveyour own way of “closing the book!”JS: [laughs] Yes! “If you don’t do thisfairly soon, the mural won’t be worthsaving.” That’s how you do it. And thepress picks up on this stuff like crazy:“Public Art Getting Abused.” Musicdoesn’t get attention like this, [eventhough] I could make the argument thatmusic is public too: Bach (for instance)belongs to everyone.

DH: The analogy that just occurred tome, clearing the varnish off . . . genera-tions of . . .JS: . . . misinterpretation of baroque andclassical music. But anyway, you get theidea. There’s more in the world than justflute. I have this art interest, Richard hashis airplanes. Maybe these things makeyou a better player. Do what you needto do for your career, but try to be wellbalanced and have fun.

DH: Thank you! ❑

�Freelance flutist Don Hulbert performson modern and baroque flute with Tra-verse Music.

NEXT ENSEMBLES

GET-TOGETHER

March 4, 2007Sunday 2:00–4:00 pm

The next ensembles get-togetherwill be in Brooklyn, at the

home of Ed Wolf, 34 Plaza Street,Apt. #607. His phone and

email are 718-857-5801 anded11145465@yahoo.com.

Please RSVP to Annette Baron,NYFC Ensembles Coordinator

New York Flute ClubEmail: NYFCEnsembles@aol.com

Phone: 973-244-0992

NYFC FEB07.FINAL 2/1/07 6:13 PM Page 7

The New York Flute ClubPark West Finance StationP.O. Box 20613New York, NY 10025-1515

Greetings! February’s NYFC concert will featurethe Hanoverian Ensemble, with John Solum and RichardWyton, baroque flutists. Don Hulbert’s lunchtime interviewtouches on some of the expected topics—how these twogentlemen got started with the baroque flute, and the roleof vibrato in historically-informed flute performance—butalso on some not-so-expected topics that were particularlyinteresting to me—Kincaid’s teaching style, the provenanceof J.S. Bach’s Sonata/Partita in A minor for solo flute, artsmanagement issues (how to be an effective fundraiser),and their wild hobbies (vintage glider planes and saving

1930s WPA murals). It must have been a lively meal!David Wechsler had some fun this month reflecting on a vacation to the imagi-

nary land of Musicus, where classical musicians enjoy the prestige and earningpower of today’s celebrity sports figures. However, things were better for musi-cians in days past. Thanks to the detective work of Nancy Toff, our readers haveseen 1920s Philippe Gaubert testimonials (in French) on the wonderful qualities ofLucky Strike cigarettes [April 2003] and 1940s Georges Barrère endorsements (inEnglish) of some nice Manhattan apartments on West End Avenue [May 2004].

This month’s member profile subject is Sergeant Major Lynn Nicole Cunning-ham, principal flutist of the USMA Band at West Point. A new member of the Club,Lynn came to my attention through her participation in the ensembles program. Aprofile not to missed; check it out.Anyway, all for now. See you soon.

Best regards,

Katherine Saenger (klsaenger@yahoo.com)

February 25, 2007 concertSunday, 5:30 pm • YamahaPiano Salon, 689 Fifth Avenue (at 54th Street)

John Solum & Richard Wyton, baroque flutes

From theEditor

2006–2007 Concerts

87th SeasonOctober 29, 2006 • Sunday, 5:30 pmFENWICK SMITH, flute, and SALLY PINKAS,piano

November 19, 2006 • Sunday, 5:30 pmLEW TABACKIN, jazz artist

December 17, 2006 • Sunday, 5:30 pmLAUREL ZUCKER, flute, and MARK DELPRIORIA, guitarHoliday reception

January 21, 2007 • Sunday, 5:30 pm TIM LIU, Chinese bamboo flutes

February 25, 2007 • Sunday, 5:30 pm THE HANOVERIAN ENSEMBLEJOHN SOLUM and RICHARD WYTON,baroque flutes

March 10, 2007 • Saturday, all dayFLUTE FAIR 2007—CAROL WINCENC, Union Theological Seminary

April 29, 2007 • Sunday, 5:30 pm2007 NYFC COMPETITION WINNERS

May 20, 2007 • Sunday, 5:30 pm ANNUAL MEETING & ENSEMBLE CONCERTGreenwich House Music School

All concerts and events (except as noted) at YamahaPiano Salon, 689 Fifth Avenue (entrance betweenFifth and Madison on 54th Street). All dates and pro-grams subject to change. Tickets $10, only at the door;free to members. For more information, visit the NYFCwebsite at www.nyfluteclub.org or call 732-257-9082.

NYFC FEB07.FINAL 2/1/07 6:13 PM Page 8