Hot Off The Press For NFA 2017
Thursday, August 3, 2017 at 3:34PM 
Each summer season seems to overflow with lots of activity, tag-teaming between my desk and the great outdoors, travel and home. Thankfully I was able to get some new flute music written for NFA this year; Maple Grove Rag and Flight of the Superhero. They are quite different in their style, but quite similar in that they are both available in flute quartet and flute choir versions. The rag swings and the superhero piece flies (unless performed under tempo, of course).
As some background, I have been doing some preliminary research on my grandmother's lyceum musical tours in the 1920's, and in the midst of this, often a ragtime or 1920's style theme has come to mind. I have ended up with several melodies as a result, and one of these became the Maple Grove Rag. As far as the superhero piece, as I sat up in bed one morning last June I was frantically reaching for paper and pencil to jot down the theme that was bouncing around in my head. Often the clarity of these 'coming out of sleep' ideas floats away faster than I can get them jotted down, but this one decided to stick around for a bit. Such a relief! It reminded me of music to accompany a superhero, thus the title.
I hope both pieces will be a blessing for flutists, fun to practice and perform. They were fun to write!
Both pieces will be available at Kathy Blocki's NFA booth, Blocki Pedagogical Products/Kinderflute at the August convention in Minneapolis, and also are available on blockiflute.com
