Tango in D Minor
Jessica Dunnavant’s Tango in D Minor recorded at Performing Arts Center, South Dakota State University January 13, 2017 Dr. Carl Spaeth, soprano saxophone Dr. Tammy Evans Yonce, flute
Applied Teaching in Woodwind Pedagogy
I teach woodwind pedagogy at South Dakota State University each fall, and it is always a juggling act. I like the text I use (Teaching Woodwinds, Mountain Peak Music) and I’m confident that my students will be able to employ it later as a helpful resource when they are in the trenches. However, it is …
2016
Etude Project, Continued
I decided to revive the etude project, which I first began in the summer of 2014. At that time, it was my goal to play through as many etudes as possible in the hopes that it would provide me a wider variety of options when assigning exercises to my students. I obviously had a good …
New Flute!
The flute trials are over. Recently, I bit the bullet and bought a silver handmade Powell flute, and I paired it with a Ruby Aurumite soloist cut headjoint. Once I decided that I wanted a silver inline handmade Powell, I spent a lot of time trying out different headjoints. I found this to be a …
Flute Trials, continued
I continue to look for a new flute. A colleague in the area has a very nice Burkart that she is not playing as much as she would like, so I tried it out for a while. It’s a beautiful instrument and has a gold headjoint. I don’t have the specifications available for this one, …
SoundCloud
I’ve just uploaded a bunch of recordings from 2014 on SoundCloud. Take a listen! Included are works by Mel Bonis, Jay C. Batzner, Daniel Dorff, Jessica Dunnavant, Alan Theisen, Ian Clarke, Michael Kallstrom, Astor Piazzolla, Robert Cronin, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Flute Trial #1
I find myself in the market for a new flute. I’m not in a hurry to purchase, and I plan to try out many different instruments before deciding what I want to go with. This week, I’ve been playing a wooden (grenadilla) flute made by Powell. The mechanism is sterling silver and it has a …
Glissando Headjoint
Flute and Composer Friends, If you don’t yet know about the Glissando Headjoint, I am happy to introduce you to some of what it can do. It was invented by the flutist/composer/musician extraordinaire Robert Dick, and plenty of information about its conception and eventual construction can be found at other sources. Check out this link …
Rob Cronin’s Sonata for Flute and Piano
I recently performed Rob Cronin‘s new Sonata for Flute and Piano at three different locations this semester: Kennesaw State University, Columbus State University, and South Dakota State University. My husband commissioned this work from Rob for my birthday, and it has been a blast to work on. Check out the performance from Columbus State here:
