Composing for flute: workshop and studio recording

OCA Music students are invited to take part in a project to create new works for the flute. The project will take place in multiple stages, encompassing an online workshop, a studio recording and, funding permitting, the opportunity to work with an ensemble.

Part 1: Workshop

An online workshop will take place on Sunday 17 November at 4pm, and will last around two hours. The session will be held using Zoom video conferencing software, and you will have opportunities to see and hear the different members of the flute family from piccolo to contrabass (time permitting) as well as a chance to explore the additional capabilities of the Kingma System and ask questions. Email me [carlarees@oca.ac.uk] to register for the workshop and to receive joining instructions. 

Part 2: Call for Works

Following the workshop, composers will have the opportunity to write for one of the members of the flute family. Works should be solo (unaccompanied) flute or alto flute and selected pieces will be recorded in the studio at UCA at the end of January. Pieces should be up to 5 minutes in duration, and priority will be given to any works which make use of the capabilities of the Kingma system. Pieces should be submitted to me as PDFs and/or Sibelius or Dorico files by 1 January 2020 at the very latest. Pieces for other members of the flute family will be considered for feedback but due to practical constraints it may not be possible to record these in the studio. All submitted pieces which fulfil the criteria will receive informal feedback regarding the practicality of the flute writing.

Resources

There are some helpful web-based resources that will help with this project. www.altoflute.co.uk is a guide to composing for the Kingma System alto flute, and other Kingma system resources may be found here [https://www.carlarees.co.uk/section683021.html

On 27th January, I will be giving a research talk about Kingma System flutes at UCA as part of the Audio Research Cluster [https://audio-research.com/], which all OCA students are welcome to attend. 

Part 3: Ensemble workshop

Will be a practical face-to-face workshop taking place in Windsor during the afternoon on 23 May 2020. Composers will have the chance to work with members of rarescale Flute Academy, an ensemble made up of university level, amateur and professional flute players. Further details about the call for scores for the workshop will be available in the new year.