The highly successful Wood Flute Festival and Conference 2006 examined the extent to which "modern" wooden Boehm-system flutes and metal flutes with wooden headjoints are being played in the United States and Canada, with a fabulous line-up of flutists, ensembles and scholars from around the country. Participants discussed their common experiences as members of a distinct but growing minority in the flute world. The intimate nature of the gathering was particularly conducive to discussion, and to absorption of the wildly diverse offerings. There was considerable enthusiasm for a repeat event. For information regarding the new Woodboehmflute email list please see http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/woodboehmflute. Don't miss the pictures (see link to left). Additional contributions to the website, either in the form of reflections or images, would be most welcomed. Many thanks to all participants!

           Wood Flute Artists and their Ensembles (Brechemin Auditorium):
•  Adrianne Greenbaum and Ensemble - Klezmer Flute with Alexander
          Eppler, cimbalom (download flyer)
•  Clifford Dunn (flutist/composer) - The Avant-Garde Wooden Flute
• Danilo Mezzadri - Brasilidade: 21st, 20th and 19th-Century Brasilian Music
•  Duozona with Chuck and Theresa Hulihan (flute and guitar)
•  Janet See and others - Early to Modern: a Wood Flute Retrospective with
•  Lanny Pollet (Victoria, BC)
•  Tim Lane with pianist Namji Kim - New Music from the Heartland
•  Wisconsin Woodwind Quintet (download flyer)

           Cabarets (McCarty Hall):
Jazz flutist Bradley Leighton (San Diego)
Jim O'Halloran and Seattle's charanga Yerba Buena

           Felix Skowronek Memorial Concert:
         June 18 at 8 PM  •  Brechemin Auditorium, University of Washington School of Music
Arthur Grossman, Tim Lane, Duozona, Clifford Dunn, Danilo Mezzadri, Lanny Pollet, Adrianne Greenbaum, Alex Eppler and a selection performed by all conference participants and the UW Flute Choir. Donations benefit the Felix Skowronek Endowed Memorial Flute Award (to be awarded annually to School of Music flute students). CONTRIBUTIONS WILL CONTINUE TO BE GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED!

           Lecture-Demonstrations:
•  Felix Skowronek, Pioneer of the Wooden Flute (Audio Video Presentation) presented by William McColl and members of the Soni Ventorum
•  Alexander Eppler - Wood and Other Aspects of Wooden Flute Construction
•  David Shorey - The Wooden Flute in America and The Historical Development & Orchestral Use of Wood Boehm-System Flutes

CONTACT
cohanjeffrey@aol.com
(206) 525-2216
FAX: (206) 202-2281

     Flutists and flute makers participated in performances, lectures and meetings to explore the current state of interest in the wooden flute and to establish a network and means of communication to help coalesce an effort that is still somewhat scattered and unorganized.
     The wooden Boehm-system ("modern") flute was prevalent in the United States a century ago, but was superseded by the silver flute. By the 1920s, manufacture of the wooden flute in the U.S. ceased and the instrument disappeared from the musical life of the nation for nearly fifty years.
     In the 1960s, a few American flutists began to rediscover the instrument and its unique qualities, and play upon in professionally. In Seattle, the manufacture of wooden headjoints began in the mid-1970s, the first such systematic effort in the U.S. in more than five decades. Much of the early--and continuing--research was led by University of Washington flute professor Felix Skowronek, who changed to the wooden flute in the early 1960s and has played it exclusively ever since. A number of his students changed to wood as well, and are a presence in the local flute scene.
     Today two major American makers, as well as a handful of smaller workshops, have begun to manufacture wooden flutes, joined by two prominenbt makers in Japan. There are now nearly twenty makers of wooden headjoints in the United States, when thirty years ago there was just one, in Seattle. A wooden flute culture has built up in Seattle and also in nearby Victoria, B.C., and wooden flutes have notable representation in the jazz, Latin, baroque, Irish, Klezmer and avant-garde arenas.