PorterFlute Pod

Join me as I remember being Program Chair for the last Atlanta convention back in 1999. Carolyn Nussbaum is my guest.

This book is the heart and soul of my teaching, performing, and healing journey; all distilled into pages I hope you’ll find inspiring, empowering, and deeply human.

Meet Olivia, Kaitlyn, Nathan, Kaliopi, Alan, Grace and Alexis. These are students who I really connected with in so many ways and I invited to be with me for their degrees at UMICH SMTD. I'm so happy to see their lives unfold. They are distinctive and very much themselves. Go Blue Flutes!

I answer these 10 questions:

How do you deal with adrenaline during performance?

Do you get sweaty hands during a performance and what are some remedies?

What are some remedies for excess spit during performance?

Do you have any pre-performance rituals?

How should I warm up before a performance - Flute warmups, mind and body work?

How do I stop overthinking or hyper-fixating on perfection?

How do you keep up momentum when you’re close to a performance but exhausted?

In what ways can you practice to feel prepared “enough” for performances?

Does positive self-talk really work and when should we use it?

What do you think we need to give a significant experience to the public through our performance?

Alison Young is The Blissful Hiker, former professional flutist "The solo, female, middle-aged, titanium-reinforced, neurological-movement-disorder-manager, cancer-thriver and long-distance-backpacker, Blissful Hiker.

With over 12,000 miles logged as a backpacker on six continents and a background as a world class professional musician and nationally syndicated radio host, Alison Young offers a unique perspective with engaging programs that connect us with the natural world and ultimately help us grapple with life’s challenges.

Alison Young is an expert at reinvention as well as tapping into creativity for success."

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It's my 100th Episode so, in the spirit of moving us forward in our flute pedagogy, I'm asking how best I can serve our flute community. What is the future of elementary classical flute music? What will music students be playing when this generation of students are teaching? PorterFlute Pod producers Isabella Carucci and Ella Hursh are flutists creating the Flute Pedagogy Project and I asked them to be the co-hosts of this special anniversary podcast. Happy 100th episode! I'm so grateful for you!

Adam Eccleston talks all about his "wild and interesting journey as a musician, educator, radio host and a slew of other wonderful things..." and we share a lot of laughs.

I met Adam at ARIA Summer Academy 15 years ago ? at Mt. Holyoke College and he really had an impression on me. We've managed to keep in touch - I heard him on WQXR Radio in NYC and I just had to have him with me in the pod.  

This podcast features interviews with the newly minted Dr. Brandon Lepage whose DMA dissertation Queer Excellence through Musical Activism is one that propels us forward. His recitals surrounded the subjects of Flint, Michigan: Repertoire and Gun Violence: and LGBTQ+ representation in "flexible" instrumentation in chamber music for intermediate players . Also featured is Alexis Phinney, our new Graduate Student Instructor for 2024-25. She is the assistant for My Breathing Buddy studies and is focusing in on all the resources available to her. She cant' wait!

Meet Noniko, my UMICH SMTD alum I deem "My Disney Princess" destined for a life in film and music. She's a digital media specialist on the high seas, bringing her music to the expeditions to Antarctica. Listen in and learn about her path from Taiwan to Antarctica after I met her at age 15.

We loved our time as Fellows at Tanglewood! Alison Young (The Blissful Hiker) and Regina Helcher Yost (Charleston Symphony) are my guests in the pod as we remember the inspiring spirit of Leonard Bernstein from our time working with him in 1987. He has left an indelible impression upon our music making - and yes, we'll weigh in on Bradley Cooper and the movie, "Maestro"

How do others make it look so easy in their career and on stage? I delve into some of the reasons that might be behind some of that look of ease. Welcome new producers Isabella Carucci and Ella Hursh into the Pod from the UMICH SMTD Flute Studio. And check out the new video format!

It's 2023 in review. The top 7 Episodes, our stats from Spotify, YouTube and Amazon as well the Meta data. Thanks from the bottom of my heart for your listenership.

Last season I didn’t do a podcast during the holidays so I thought I’d end this season with advice for getting through it all. So I chose the most obvious of titles.  – A Musician’s Winter Break. Yin? Or Yang? Yin being restorative and yang being filled with power. Both will be productive, believe me.

Lots of things are up - so I'll update you! Go Blue Flutes, where I'm playing next and some new recordings being released in 2024.

I’m happy to be coming to you with some prescriptions for naturally healing your fear of being in the hot seat during those pre-screening and live auditions for music school.  Let me tell you, I don’t like being judged any more than you do so let me tell you how to best be yourself, how to think, who to listen to when it comes to your playing (hint: it’s not you) and what is expected of student’s in an audition for schools, both undergrad and grad.

With me in the pod, several of my unnamed alumni, in order to show you that they all are looking for a lot of the same things. Stay tuned to find out what those concepts and hard truths are.   

Written by flutist and teacher Marianne Gedigian, Survival of the Flutist details the journey of a flutist on their path to professional and personal fulfillment. This stunning 80+ page hard cover picture book was masterfully hand lettered and illustrated by artist, flutist and teacher Patti Adams. Produced by Adam Workman, founder and president of Flutistry Boston, Survival of the Flutist is exclusively available at www.flutistry.com

What Harry Potter is to young wizards, Demi is to young flutists. Today I get to speak with someone who is MY JK Rowling. Delandria Mills, author of "Demi's Flute, Entering the Realm of Sound."

 She's the author of a book about a preteen discovering the world of sound and music around her. Demi's Flute fills the hearts of young music students and others alike, who are learning to express themselves while finding value and substance in the world around them. For readers between the ages of nine and thirteen, but a fun read for all ages.

I learned the flute before the computer was portable and I’m often asked how I did it. After asking “did what?” and “what are you asking about?”  How I made a career before the ease of information and accessibility. I realize you all want to know how we got by without the internet or computer for gaining wisdom about classical music and how to play it. Sit down and listen. There's a lesson here.

NFA Lifetime Service Award winner Penelope Fischer turns 80! Listen to our conversation in 2020 about and feature 3 of the works on the Phillipe Gaubert Study Guide we created together in 2017. Amy Porter, flute; Tim Carey, piano. Penny Fischer and AP discuss Nocturne & Allegro Scherzando, Madrigal and Sonata in A,

We review new ways to warm yourself up with two wonderful flutists! Discover Modal Flute Warmups from Laura Lentz in Rochester, NY and Daily exercises and Rubank duets online with Detroit Symphony's Amanda Blaikie. PLUS exciting news about a new method on the horizon from a very respected pedagogue. Listen in!

Listen in as distinguished professor Dr. Dowling teaches about how he quantified my sound for the audience at my 2019 Anatomy of Sound workshop. Apparently people wanted to know why I sounded and how I sounded like I sound! Dr. Dowling specializes in underwater acoustics, hydrodynamics, hydro-acoustics, structural acoustics and has worked for the Navy so - I trusted him in this study but it took some convincing on his part as to why I needed to see the Anatomy of Sound! Featuring Gaubert Sonata in A from Amy Porter's recording "Ballade".

My coach from 1988-1990 was Trudy Kane. Ms Kane was Principal Flute with the Metropolitan Opera 1976-2008 and is Professor Emeritus at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami. She received both her BM and MM from the Juilliard School. She is active in the commercial recording field and can be heard on the soundtracks of many film scores including The Untouchables and Beauty and the Beast (original). She can be heard and seen on many Met videos including Il Trittico, Manon Lescaut, Peter Grimes and three different La Bohemes. Her solo CD In the French Style includes Sonatas by Franck, Fauré and the Gieseking Sonatine.

What's up Amy? Featuring surprise guest Gareth Davies, Principal Flute, London Symphony. Plus updates on Trio Virado, Brevard Music Center and AP's summer reading list.

Drama! Stolen Flutes! Stolen Music! It's a backstory from 200 years ago. Plus - In the preface of the Drouet Etudes it mentions that they should be practiced after the Berbiguier etudes. I was so happy to read that because I needed something to bridge the gap from Berbiguier to Altes and Rose.

New York Flute legend Elizabeth Mann and Blue Flute Alum Karmen Gould bring the one piece advice that everyone needs when they say to themselves and others, "I want to play in the movies, the pit or in rock band!" If I had a nickel for every time I hear that. You have to love it, live it and be "the musician's musician."

Fear. Blame. Regret. All feelings that can emerge on the yoga mat, in a lesson and in a personal relationship. Today I want to discuss the concept that these feelings of fear, blame and regret represent the space between where you are RIGHT NOW (who you think you are) and where you want to be (who you are going to become).

No one is producing this podcast except me, myself and I so get out your journal, sit on the couch and let’s discuss one mental health issue – feelings.

Get out your piccolo notebook in this therapy session everyone because In the pod with us is legendary Detroit musician Jefferey Zook and I ask him the questions you’ve asked me.

Meet Masters of Music flute students Minseo Kim from Korea and Lexi Eubanks from Georgia, along with DMA candidate Brandon LePage from Michigan. They're all checking in and letting us her their voices as they tell us in their words, how their experiences have been in 2022. 

Meet Viviana Guzman.

This episode takes a deep dive into the "Etudes for solo flute" by Korean composer Isang Yun. Here I excerpt the dissertation and feature the playing of Dr. Brian Dunbar, faculty at Anatomy of Sound and Professor of Flute at Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.

Let's think about the awareness of our behavior in our business, or job, our workspace. We’ll speak about some of the things people are learning as young adults and are like, “HEY! I wish I knew that earlier!” Today I’m discussing what to say and how to behave in several different arts and artistic settings and hopefully it will elevate your purpose. Suggestions from Vicky Oliver, Janet Horvath, Alan J. Tomasetti, and the Cincinncati Metroplitan Orchestra.

Meet "Funny Girl" Alice K. Dade. She loves making people laugh in stand up comedy. AND she's a great musician and teacher. From the University of Missouri, welcome my friend Alice.

They are astoundingly wonderful people beginning their journey within the folds of the University of Michigan Flute Studio. Meet the new Blue Flutes!

Today I want to get into that very popular phrase - that "blessing" we bestow on others in the hallways of homes and music schools everywhere. "Have a Good Lesson!" What does that mean exactly? And to whom? I pose some ways we might look at this wonderful and ever-changing one-on-one meeting with our mentors. I give both perspectives here, having been in both situations. Of course, I haven't been in your situation. Only you can change your perspective in order to have a good lesson.

Blue Flute Alumni and award winning composer Nina Shekhar is my guest and we really give the attention and light to female and nonbinary composers. We want to live in the solution. From her  bio "Nina Shekhar is a composer who explores the intersection of identity, vulnerability, love, and laughter to create bold and intensely personal works." Enjoy the podcast as we feature some of her works!

Meet Daniel Dorff. Flutists adore playing his music and I adore his humor. Featuring excerpts with Katie Leung, pianist in my live performance of Dorff's Sonata (Three Lakes).

I met Tom Garcia at Juilliard as a tuba major. Then we formed the Porter/Garcia Flute and Guitar Duo and the rest is history. Born in Brazil, he's an expert in all things Villa Lobos and even makes his own period Latin American guitars. He is Professor of Ethnomusicology and Musicology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

We go there, firing questions about "Early" music with Kathie Stewart, my partner for my recent project on YouTube, Quantz Quickies. We discuss J.J. Quantz's treatise, "On Playing The Flute". A founding member of the GRAMMY-award winning baroque music ensemble Appolo's Fire, currently Kathie is Curator of Historical Keyboards at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Historical Performance Institute, and Academic Specialist in Historical Performance.

Let’s talk about music, animals and life. They all go together emotionally and scientifically. Listen to stories, studies and facts behind music on our human planet and our animal planet. With stories by Laura Dwyer, and Co-producers Justine Sedky and Alan J Tomasetti. Featuring Amy Porter playing "Zoo Song" by Nina Shekhar.

Welcome to Season 4! Need to know about repair warning signs, talk shop about gold and silver, and understand a ton more that you did before? Meet Adam Workman. He's likable, trustworthy and always current. First Flutistry Boston, then Flutistry Austin, now Flutistry Florida. Your Flutistry is always evolving. 

The Juilliard 1980s reunion continues as we tell stories from our time at Juilliard in the 1980s and living in New York City's Ansonia Hotel. We invited two of my closest buddies, a girlfriend who’s just a great girlfriend and a neighbor who was just a great neighbor. Violist and educator Rebecca Young and pianist, composer and educator Robert Apostle. I went to the vault and found a Sonata that’s a favorite among flute players- Christopher Caliendo’s Sonata No 8 Movement 3 the Ride of the Headless Horseman. It tells an amazing story and I appreciate that I received the dedication and the premiere. Pianist David Gilliland.

I’ll give you just a few thoughts from my experience over 20 years at Michigan on the relationships with a teacher of your instrument and  highlight work that students can do personally to have everything click. Featuring Gieseking Sonata with Tim Carey on piano.

In honor of December application deadlines we have some advice on auditioning for the UMICH SMTD Flute studio. And there are four Blue Flute alumni updates!

Let's dive deeper into the the stories behind the Atlanta Flute Club (Founded in 1997) with Kathy Farmer and Southeast Michigan Flute Association (Founded in 2002) with Debbie Ash and Holly Clemans. We also discuss flute choirs and their development. Featuring Desert Echoes Flute Project Flute Choir with member and co-producer of PorterFLute Pod, Alan Tomasetti. Performing "Flourishes" by Kathy Farmer.

We come bearing a Rose - etude that is. It’s our  Etude edition and Cyril Rose etudes for clarinet are discussed today since I’ve recently recorded them all from my edition published by Carl Fisher. and we’ll be looking into them more creatively with my two colleagues from UMICH SMTD, Professors Chad Burrow and Dan Gilbert.

We’re bringing some advice to those students wondering if they can have a career teaching and performing as an instrumentalist – together – and not put into a box of being one or the other. Meet the most recent Doctorate graduates that have jobs here in the US - Dr. Erika Boysen, University of North Carolina, Greensboro and Dr. Maria Castillo, University of TN, in Knoxville. Both women weigh in on being DMA graduates from UMICH and young Professors in the 21st century.