Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you all safe and healthy.

I wanted to invite you to participate in Prayer Project I:Prayer for Virtual Flute Orchestra.  This is a project being done in collaboration with the National Flute Association, which we hope will be a beautiful and meaningful artistic offering amidst this awful crisis that our world is facing.

The roots of this project are deeply personal.  In 2011, my mother was diagnosed with a serious illness. I wrote my short piece Prayer as a response to this terrifying news, as a meditation on healing and hope.  Thankfully, my mom recovered fully and is fine now. Prayer later became the middle movement of my Viola Concerto, as well as a recital piece for solo instrument and piano.

Here is the flute and piano version of Prayer, performed by the wonderful flutist Robert Langevin, and with me on the piano.

When I heard the 2020 National Flute Convention had been canceled, my heart went out to the flute community that has welcomed me so warmly over the years and has helped bring so much of my music to life. This was yet another reflection of the disruption and disappointment that so many of us are experiencing on creative, social, and financial levels.

My husband Micah suggested that I create a flute orchestra version of Prayer as a way of uplifting and bringing people together through sharing the performance and creation of music, which is so much a part of the spirit embodied by the National Flute Association.

Now the project is complete and the final performance can be seen here

I created a 16-part arrangement of Prayer for flute orchestra. Over the weekend, the renowned conductor, Maestra JoAnn Falletta, generously recorded the conducting track from her living room.

We then went looking for ninety to a hundred people who are willing to take part in our virtual orchestra by downloading the instructions and conductor video – and recording their parts from home.

 

 

 

 

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