Dear Baroque Flute Enthusiasts,
For the 2012 Baroque Flute Boot Camp I will be on hiatus. Many of you know that since September 2008 I have been pursuing a PhD in Musicology at the University of Oregon. It has been intellectually stimulating and very enjoyable. One requirement for the PhD is writing a dissertation. Another aspect of the PhD program in music history/musicology is the opportunity to teach undergraduate lecture classes. The dissertation and teaching not one but two summer sessions this year will keep me from participating in the Fourteenth Annual Baroque Flute Boot Camp (14 years? Really? Wow!).
This is only a one year hiatus. I expect to be back at the helm in 2013. But the boot camp will only miss my personality this year. My collaborator, friend, and colleague, Janet See will be there, as usual, and after a two-year apprenticeship, our friend and colleague Kathie Stewart, Baroque flute teacher at the Oberlin Conservatory, will be the other boot camp instructor.
The participants will continue to be pushed out of their respective comfort zones to acquire new skills and knowledge of Baroque flute and Baroque performance practices. My patented Forehead Slap of Despair (FSD) may be missed, but other than that, the Boot Camp Experience will be the same. You can expect lots of flute playing, technical exercises, improvisation theory and practice, camaraderie, encouragement, and the feeling that your brain has been filled to capacity each day.
I will, obviously, be sad to not be a physical part of the BFBC XIV, but feel confident that Ms. See and Ms. Stewart will conduct business as usual. If anything, the environment may be more intense, challenging, and stimulating than in years past, because that is how we roll at the BFBC.
See you physically in 2013. See you virtually all the time.
kp
