Vinny Golia review

Clarinetist David Thomas quoted from the article below on his excellent blog The Buzzing Reed earlier today, and I thought it was worth passing along. There is some fun description of amazing woodwind doubler Vinny Golia doing his thing.

Spring Reverb: Golia/Turetzy; Dana Reason Trio

by Christian Hertzog, sandiego.com

The first set was devoted to Vinny Golia and Bertram Turetzky, both of whom have played together in San Diego many times, giving them, as Turetzky announced in one of the generous introductions that preceded each of their 5 selections, a kind of ESP. Unlike Dana Reason, who brought plenty of written music to use (or ignore, as the case may have been) for her set, Golia and Turetzky played freely improvised music.

Golia had so many clarinets, flutes, and saxophones propped up next to him or in a travel bag that Turetzky joked that the real Museum was the one next to Golia. Each work began with Golia pondering which wind to play, making a selection, and then soloing, to be joined shortly afterward by Turetzky. The description of their music making as “ESP” was not far off the mark, given the duo’s uncanny ability to complement each other while spontaneously creating melodies and textures.

Golia has a penchant for playing multiphonics, alternating the highest and lowest registers of his chosen instruments (clarinet, contrabass clarinet, contrabass flute, or piccolo). At other times, he pulled out different varieties of ethnic flutes, from which issued trills, microtones, and spastic twittering melodies.

Read the whole thing.

More about woodwind wizard Vinny Golia at his website.

David Summer: Flute/trumpet doubling

I enjoyed reading some interesting thoughts from multi-instrumentalist and music educator David Summer, who doubles quite effectively on flute and trumpet (and a few other instruments). I’m quoting a few highlights below, but definitely read the whole thing here. I have seen no ill effects on either the trumpet embouchure or flute embouchure from playing both the … Read more

The Usual Suspects – Los Angeles studio musicians

If you’re not familiar with Dr. Gio Washington-Wright’s web site, The Usual Suspects, you really ought to cancel all your plans for the next two or three days and thoroughly check it out. Dr. Washington-Wright, a reed player himself, profiles many/most/all? of the top studio musicians on the L. A. scene, with tons of bios, … Read more

Free woodwind sheet music on the IMSLP

IMSLP logoThe Internet Music Score Library Project is an online library of public-domain sheet music. Most of the available music is in PDF format and can be freely downloaded. The files are uploaded by users, mostly scanned from published sheet music that falls into the public domain. This means mostly compositions that are old enough to be public domain, in published editions that are also old enough to be public domain.

This is a fantastic resource for finding older editions of woodwind solo pieces, chamber music, and orchestral parts.

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Videos: John Miller, Broadway music contractor

I’ve been really enjoying these videos of John Miller. Mr. Miller (not to be confused with the eminent bassoonist) does much of the contracting of the musicians who play in Broadway shows. In these videos, he is addressing a group of his fellow bass players, but everything he has to say is highly applicable to woodwind players and anyone else who wants to make money playing their instrument(s).

John Miller
John Miller, bassist and NYC contractor

He talks about what kind of musicians he likes to hire, what is expected of a professional musician on the New York City scene, and lots more.

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More woodwind blogs

I’ve added a number of new woodwind-related blogs to my blogroll (to your right). All are blogs that I read regularly.

If you don’t already use a feed reader, I suggest you check out Google Reader for keeping track of all your favorite blogs in one place.

The new ones as of this update are:

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Pedro Eustache: ethnic woodwinds

If you’re interested in ethnic woodwinds, you ought to check out virtuoso flutist Pedro Eustache. I like that on his website he refers to himself as a “multidirectional flute soloist.”

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Recommended: Jennifer Cluff’s flute blog

If you aren’t reading Jennifer Cluff’s blog, I highly recommend surfing on over and spending a few hours: www.jennifercluff.com/blog/

Ms. Cluff’s blog gets my vote for being the most useful woodwind-related blog currently on the web, with long and in-depth posts about flute playing, including, sometimes, answers to readers’ questions. There is really excellent stuff here for beginners and very advanced flutists alike. I just finished reading her latest post, on excess movement in flute playing. Ms. Cluff’s posts are sporadic but always worthwhile, so subscribe to the RSS feed if you’re cool like that.

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Sal Lozano on doubling

Los Angeles woodwind doubler Sal Lozano makes some basic points about flute-clarinet-saxophone doubling. This YouTube freebie appears to be a teaser for the video lessons you can purchase at Stars Teach Music, which has a surprisingly impressive roster of video woodwind teachers (mostly saxophonists). I enjoyed this little clip by the esteemed Mr. Lozano, but … Read more