Fredrich Kuhlau (1786–1832) was a Danish composer of the late Classical and early Romantic periods who wrote prodigiously for the flute. The final movement of his Fantasie for Solo Flute in D major, "Arietta and Variations" is charming, virtuosic, and fun! The aria "Bati, Bati" from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni is the theme. The operatic spirit shines in this 4 minute long gem. Georg Philip Telemann, Fantaisie No. 12 , performed by Karen Kevra , flute Georg Friedrich Händel, Suite No. 5 in E Majo...
Feb 28, 2024•10 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Composer Katherine Hoover's Winter Spirits is a musical tribute to the American Desert Southwest. This 5 minute piece was inspired by Marie Buchfink's artwork picturing a cross-legged native American flute player: A colorful cloud of tiny beneficent spirits rises from the flute into a cloud. Elements of dance, chant, and drumming combine to create a mystical, magical soundscape. Katherine Hoover, Kokopeli Katherine Hoover, Winter Spirits performed by Karen Kevra, flute Support the show...
Jan 15, 2024•11 min•Season 2Ep. 18
In this encore episode from Christmas eve 2020, we celebrate the life and legacy of Tony Barrand who died on January 29, 2022. Tony Barrand was born in England in 1945 but has lived most of his life in southern Vermont in the vibrant town of Brattleboro—a place that shines all the more brightly because of him. This Cornell PHD and Professor Emeritus of Boston University is not just an academic, but also a singer, dancer, and story-teller. What first grabs you is his way with words—he can give th...
Dec 21, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Pianist Jeffrey Chappell reflects on his life and his formative mentorships first with pianist Jane Allen, and later with the legendary Leon Fleisher . In this encore episode, Jeffrey reveals his early childhood genesis story with the piano; his studies at the Curtis Institute and Peabody Conservatory, and path that led him to an astounding last minute substitution for Claudio Arrau with the Baltimore Symphony. He addresses overcoming challenges and adversity and speaks about his lifelong medita...
Aug 31, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Edgard Varèse is one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century and was called "The stratospheric Colossus of Sound." He lived life with intensity and composed the same way. Varèse lived most of his composing life in New York City and made music out of the compelling cacophony of NYC street noises: sirens, firetrucks, river sounds, foghorns, and even skyscraper construction. Density 21.5 was composed in 1936 (and revised in 194) at the request of Georges Barrère to inaugurate his...
Jun 21, 2023•15 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Flight of the Bumblebee from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Tale of Tsar Saltan"--is at the heart of a fantastical tale which includes a large cast of characters including a king and a queen, a magical swan, and a prince turned bumblebee. It's a dazzling colorful encore piece, instantly recognizable and adopted by all kinds of instrumentalists, from string players, to pianists and of course flutists. The buzzier and the faster, the better! Georg Philip Telemann, Fantaisie No. 12 for solo f...
May 04, 2023•5 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Pierre-Octave Ferroud wrote "Jade"- a tropical work for solo flute in July of 1921. There are two musical features in this Asian-styled French piece that give it its distinctly far eastern flavor. The first is the pentatonic scale-- the five pitches are tied to five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The second feature is a rhythmic one --the ever present dotted rhythms give the piece a bubbling dance quality. This is imaginative music so close your eyes and travel to a tropical beach...
Feb 14, 2023•6 min•Season 2Ep. 13
One of the things that really sets Gabriel Fauré apart is the singing style of his music. He was an exceptional and prolific composer of song so it's no wonder that we hear that singing quality even in his instrumental works. Fauré's "Morceau de Concours" is an incredibly special tiny gem. Don't be fooled by the title. Though he wrote it as a sight-reading examination piece for students at the Paris Conservatory, it is a poetic lullaby. -A musical balm for this most dark time of year. MUSIC: Geo...
Dec 08, 2022•9 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Muse Mentors host Karen Kevra discusses Beethoven's transcendent Hymn of Thanksgiving from the Op. 132 A minor string quartet with Nicholas Kitchen, the first violinist of the Borromeo Quartet. Credits: Beethoven, Hymn Of Thanksgiving (String Quartet Op. 132, Movement III) Borromeo Quartet - Nicholas Kitchen, Violin; Kristopher Tong, Violin; Mai Motobuchi, Viola; Yeesun Kim, Cello) Use this link to hear and see the entire performance by the Borromeo String Quartet Support the show...
Nov 22, 2022•16 min•Season 2Ep. 11
CPE Bach was the second son of Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara Bach and to say he was a prolific composer is putting it mildly. CPE Bach wrote loads of flute music--sonatas, chamber music, and dazzling concerti. The tremendous output of flute music had to do with the fact that he had a flutist for a boss--Frederick the Great of Prussia. His touching Sonata in A minor for solo flute was composed in Berlin in 1747 and the opening movement is a palate of fall colors --golden yellows, reds, mahog...
Nov 12, 2022•10 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Fredrich Kuhlau was admired by Beethoven and is known as "the Beethoven of the flute." He wrote his gorgeous Fantasy in D major for solo flute in 1820 during a four-month stay in Vienna. Perhaps the Danube river provided inspiration for this silky, rippling Romantic music... Georg Philip Telemann, Fantaisie No. 12, performed by Karen Kevra Fredrich Kuhlau, Fantasy, Op. 38 in D major , Adagio, performed by Karen Kevra J.S. Bach, Fantasia in G minor, BWV 542 , performed by Hans-André Stamm-organ B...
Aug 04, 2022•8 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Frenchman Johannès Donjon's Etudes de Salon are whimsical and summery music. His miniature "Song of the Wind" , "Élégie" , and "Will-O'-the Wisp" require sure-footed technique. Even so, this fun music oozes with color, expression and imagination. Georg Philip Telemann, Fantaisie No. 12 Johannès Donjon, Song of the Wind, Élégie, Will-O'-the Wisp Performed by Karen Kevra . Support the show...
Jul 16, 2022•9 min•Season 2Ep. 8
It's been a period of intense news and worldwide stress. At times like these you've got to turn it off and turn to music. Czech composer Jindřich Feld's 1957 Meditation is a sublime 2.5 minute work that offers a respite from the news. Try the simple meditative approach for a deep listening experience. Ray Chen-violin, and Julio Elizalde-piano perform Jules Massenet Meditation from Thais Karen Kevra-flute, performs Jindřich Feld's Meditation . Support the show...
Jul 02, 2022•6 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Pierre-Octave Ferroud wrote his "Bergère Captive", a gorgeous and plaintive work for solo flute in July of 1921. You've probably never heard of Ferroud because he died a grisly pedestrian death when he stepped out into an oncoming car and was killed at the age of 36. It's a tragedy because if you listen to his colorful and inventive music you will understand why he won the attention of Prokofiev, Poulenc and Stravinsky! His "Captive Shepherd" is musical storytelling at its best--full of imaginat...
Jun 16, 2022•5 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Johann Sebastian Bach was incredibly generous with the flute. He wrote several full scale sonatas, gave the flute has starring roles in two of the Brandenburg concerti, and beautiful obbligato parts in countless arias, but there is just one solo partita. The slow movement from his A minor flute Partita-a Sarabande -is a dance form with both Arab and Spanish origins and has a silky, sensual quality. Imagine a kind of "dance of the seven veils. " Way back in 1583, King Philip II of Spain had the S...
May 15, 2022•15 min•Season 2Ep. 6
"THE CHILDREN ARE PLAYING" is a tiny fairy-tale of a piece for solo flute written by Denmark's best-known composer Carl Nielsen in 1920 as incidental music for a play called "The Mother." The whimsical music is a tip of the cap to Hans Christian Andersen and sounds like kids on playground on a spring day--leaping and laughter and teasing and taunting with a mix of sun and clouds. Georg Philip Telemann, Fantaisie No. 12 Claude Debussy, Syrinx Carl Nielsen, The Children are Playing All flute piece...
Apr 26, 2022•3 min•Season 2Ep. 5
In this encore episode James Pease Blair , one of National Geographic's legendary photographers talked about love, life, and legacy. Jim began his 32 year career at the National Geographic Society with a splash as staff photographer on board Jacques Cousteau's Calypso in 1962. As a photography student in the fifties at the Institute of Design in Chicago, he studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, but it was his years as a summer intern with Roy E. Stryker, at the Pittsburgh Photographic L...
Apr 14, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Composer/flutist/pianist Louis Moyse 's Pastorale was written in 1925 when he was just 14 years old. Louis was the son of the great French flutist Marcel Moyse, and he grew up steeped in Parisian culture and with the sound of the flute in his ears and his heart. That influence shows in this evocative, oh-so-French piece that sounds like a marriage between Impressionism and springtime in the French countryside. Georg Philip Telemann, Fantaisie No. 12 , performed by Karen Kevra Louis Moyse, Pastor...
Apr 06, 2022•11 min
Composer Katherine Hoover's Winter Spirits is a musical tribute to the American Desert Southwest. This 5 minute piece was inspired by Marie Buchfink's artwork picturing a cross-legged native American flute player: A colorful cloud of tiny beneficent spirits rises from the flute into a cloud. Elements of dance, chant, and drumming combine to create a mystical, magical soundscape. Katherine Hoover, Kokopeli Katherine Hoover, Winter Spirits performed by Karen Kevra, flute Support the show...
Mar 22, 2022•11 min
In this first full episode of the FLUTE STORIES MINI-SERIES host and flutist Karen Kevra explores Claude Debussy's magical mythical Syrinx, the finest gem of the solo flute repertoire. Claude Debussy, Prélude à l' après - midi d' un faune Claude Debussy, Syrinx CPE Bach, Poco Adagio from Sonata in A minor for solo flute Karen Kevra, flute Albert von Tilzer, Take Me Out to the Ballgame , Mark Herman, organ Support the show...
Mar 09, 2022•8 min
Muse Mentors host Karen Kevra is your guide in Flute Stories--These short episodes weave performances of flute music with the stories behind them. All performances by Karen Kevra Georg Philipp Telemann , Fantasie #12 in G minor Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Flight of the Bumblebee Joachim Anderson , Etude in G major, #3, Op. 15 Louis Moyse, Pastorale Claude Debussy, Syrinx Jules Mouquet, Pan and the Birds Edgard Varèse, Density 21.5 Carl Nielsen, The children are playing Support the show...
Mar 09, 2022•3 min
Nicholas Kitchen , one of the country's leading violinists is a founding member of the Boston-based Borromeo String Quartet. Nick is perhaps the most important protégé of the great Polish violinist Szymon Goldberg. Nick has been loaned his teacher's violin-- the Giuseppe Guarneri, Cremona, ca. 1730, "Goldberg-Baron Vitta" to play throughout his career. In his musical life, Nick was first nurtured by his musically hands-on parents and later through his mentorship with Goldberg. Nick's rich and pr...
Jan 15, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Tony Barrand was born in England in 1945 but has lived most of his life in southern Vermont in the vibrant town of Brattleboro—a place that shines all the more brightly because of him. This Cornell PHD and Professor Emeritus of Boston University is not just an academic, but also a singer, dancer, and story-teller. What first grabs you is his way with words—he can give them weight, or make them sparkle depending on the point he is trying to make, but he uses words to greatest effect when he sings...
Dec 21, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In this short anniversary episode, Muse Mentors host Karen Kevra looks back on a year with a podcast, and a year without concerts. She previews an upcoming concert by Boston's Borromeo Quartet and discusses Beethoven's transcendent Op. 132 A minor string quartet with Nicholas Kitchen, the first violinist of the Borromeo quartet. Credits: Kuhlau, Fantaisie in D major, Adagio - Karen Kevra-flute Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell Beethoven, Hymn Of Thanksgiving (String Quartet Op. 132, Movement III) ...
Oct 09, 2021•9 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Encore episode: Rob Mermin ran off to join the circus in 1969 at the age of 19. He clowned with renowned European circuses, including England’s Circus Hoffman , Sweden’s Cirkus Scott , Denmark’s Circus Benneweis in the famous Circus Building by the Tivoli, and many more. It was his long mentorship with the iconic French mime Marcel Marceau that shaped him as a performer and inspired him to dream and make plans. In 1987 he founded Circus Smirkus , the embodiment of Rob -- the touch of wonder, the...
Aug 24, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 14
In this encore episode of Muse Mentors, pianist Jeffrey Chappell reflects on his life and his formative relationship with his mentor the legendary Leon Fleisher . He addresses overcoming challenges and adversity through the lens of his teacher's career-altering medical condition. The episode closes with the voice of Leon Fleisher who offers powerful words to live by. Support the show...
Jul 23, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Kerrin McCadden 's new collection of poems called American Wake is made of the stuff of life --subjects like family, divorce, raising children, love and even her brother's tragic death by drug overdose are poignantly bound together by her strong Irish Heritage and her family's immigrant story. American Wake, is an actual term that refers to a kind of "Irish wake-style" farewell party that was thrown for Irish families the night before before they set sail for America. A lot of us dabble in ances...
Jun 25, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Lou Kosma was a bass player in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for 36 years. He grew up in Philadelphia in the fifties in a blue collar Italian American family - a loving home where the sound of Italian tarantellas played on guitar and accordion spilled from the windows, and the smell of frying meatballs and Roma tomato sauce filled the air. Little did his working class family know that their son would one day ascend to one of the greatest orchestras in the world! But that full-time job wasn't ...
May 19, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 11
James Pease Blair , one of National Geographic's legendary photographers talks about love, life, and legacy. Jim began his 32 year career at the National Geographic Society with a splash as staff photographer on board Jacques Cousteau's Calypso in 1962. As a photography student in the fifties at the Institute of Design in Chicago, he studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, but it was his years as a summer intern with Roy E. Stryker, at the Pittsburgh Photographic Library that made the big...
Apr 11, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 10
It can sound hyperbolic to make the claim that a person has changed the world and made it a better place. In the case of Eli Newberger , it is utterly true. Eli Newberger is equal parts music man and medicine man. He was the key prosecution witness in the trial of Louise Woodward, the British nanny convicted of second-degree murder in the death of an 8-month-old in Boston in1997. Later during the Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal, he offered his expertise on the effects of abuse on childre...
Mar 18, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 9
