It's a Wrap! (…and I'm gonna TOOT MY HORN)

It may not be December 31st, but another season is wrapping up, and I’m in the mood to CELEBRATE!

In my Zoom group, we celebrate frequently, with the perfectly-named-for-musicians exercise called “Toot Your Horn”. Why “exercise”, you might ask?

Well, for many women, our socialisation has frowned upon anything self-congratulatory. Making noise, taking up space, showing some ego… these are unwritten no-no’s, a message received loud and clear in so many ways by the time one reaches about age 13. (Alas, the younger members of the group assure me that this remains true…)

So, as a feminist act, I’m gonna charge ahead here and shout out some great stuff that I pulled off this season—and I recommend everyone else does the same: put it on YOUR blog, write it down, tape the list to your bathroom mirror.

In Portuguese, Assumir — to own up to something, take responsibility, confirm — sums up this attitude of “owning” your power, and I think it is the perfect antidote to all this “gee-shucks” socialisation. Although it can take some getting used to!

So without further ado:

• I recorded a full album of music I love, including some music I love written by me.

• I overcame F.O.R. (Fear of Rejection) and asked several composers whose music I love for permission to record their pieces, and a musician I revere to record with me — and got positive responses! (Knock, and the door shall be opened).

• I performed a fantastic array of music in concerts, every last one of which with musicians I admire both professionally and personally.

• I “put my stuff out there” with a creative project on Instagram; got over my fear of … whatever I was afraid of… had a blast, and got wonderful feedback from both friends, musicians, and “normal people”.

• I overcame a serious hangup around “tech” issues (Finale software, I’m looking at YOU!)

• I thoroughly enjoyed teaching my fabulous students, both private and the flute class at ESART. They outdid themselves—what am I going to do next year??

• I managed to “have a life” — let my dog walk me in the park, threw some dinner parties, made fantastic new friends, kept up with many “old” friends, traveled a bit, read a book or two, and supported my fab fab fab daughter through the thicket that is the last year of college!

On the other side of the ledger, I also DROPPED SOME BALLS, and don’t hate myself for it.

Maybe some of those balls will get picked back up…but if not, IT’S OK. We all have too many things on our to-do lists. We can either freak out, or just accept that that is part of having a full and busy life.

If you’re like me, once you finish something, you pretty much go on to the next item, without celebrating or—sometimes—even remembering what you’ve done. It’s great to move forward (and I’ve got my next “ducks” in a row), but it’s also healthy to see and note down just how far you’ve come.

Whether you’re a musician or a student and this feels like “year end” or not, I suggest you put a timer on for 5 minutes, and list everything you’ve accomplished in the last year. You will likely amaze yourself!

Go ahead, you can do it, join me: toot your own horn!

Gurus … and Guru Purnima

It so happens I received the most honoring text message recently; I shall call the message-sender AR.

AR’s message was in celebration of “Guru Purnima”, in India. On this day, students pay respects to the teacher who “shines like the Moon in one’s life to dispel the ignorance of the darkest of nights”.

On my second tour through India, AR and I briefly met and exchanged ideas in the guise of a flute lesson. We had an intense conversation and connected in a deep way, as seems to happen both in India and, counterintuitively, when under restraints of time and situation. I was returning to Europe the following day.

Whatever wisdom I might have passed along was either distilled from either my own painfully slow learnings, or from work with my own “gurus”. So in the spirit of Guru Purnima, and lamentably a week or more late, I would like to honor some of the many “Gurus” who have passed through my life:

RL, who taught me that anything worth doing was worth doing well. LP who taught me that teaching is fun. KK who taught me attention to detail. GW who taught me what kindness is. AS who taught me to use my imagination. AC who taught me to just be me. PA who showed me endless possibilities. SB who taught me to look for the essence.

These teachers, friends, and colleagues have, over the years, shown me the way forward, what’s important and what’s not. And when I forget (often), they are there to teach me again, no matter how many oceans lie between us.

Pedro de Alcantara @ 5th Summer Flute Academy!!

Consider yourself invited to attend our 5th (!) Summer Flute Academy— it promises to be the biggest, craziest and most fun EVER! Don't come to sit there watching, you'll be there to play, play, play, and also do a little listening and lots of trying out of new ideas!

There is really TOO MUCH planned to list it all in one go, so I'll just start in with one hot-off-the press bit of news: Pedro de Alcantara, one of the world's best-known teachers of the Alexander Technique and a wildly creative person, will be present! I'm very excited to announce this as it is not easy to get Pedro, based in Paris, "down" to Portugal, not for lack of interest, but only because he's often busy working in exotic places such as Australia or Japan! 

Pedro is Brazilian, trained in the US and the UK as a cellist, and has lived and worked in Paris for quite some time. He is the author of "Indirect Procedures", a book about the Alexander Technique for musicians published by Oxford University Press, has released several CDs, including improvisations, and is also a writer of novels. Check out his site and blog!

But mostly, he is a wonderful, insightful and unique person, who will bring his own ideas on music-making to all of us at the Academy! Thank you, Pedro, for fitting us into your schedule! "Expect nothing, anticipate anything."

Pedro de Alcantara, musician, writer, thinker, healer, creativity expert

ESART - Auditions Overflow with Talent!

It was an exciting, if long, day at ESART last Sunday! My wonderful colleague (and Powell player) Professor Stephanie Wagner and I listened to twenty candidates for the Bachelor's program (licenciatura) — this was a tie with last year's number, and the largest applicant group by instrument!

To the hopeful candidates performing for us, it is of course very stressful, but an important thing to know is that what any jury really wants to hear is GREAT PLAYING! We are "with you" out there on the stage, we've been there, too! Never think the jury just wants to toss people off the ship—it really is not like that!

And we were extremely pleased with the level of the young flutists! For someone who has been in Portugal for quite some time, you might say the level would have been unimaginable even 5-10 years back. Therefore, we congratulate the hard-working, dedicated teachers who have produced such fine young players!

Lastly, we thank all twenty flutists for making the effort to be there and putting out your best! Bravi tutti!!

ESART Classe de Flauta Transversal, 2016-17 (with fun filters!)