Woodbridge Flute Choir to Perform at National Flute Convention

•  The following is a press release from the Woodbridge Flute Choir. It is unedited. 

The Woodbridge Flute Choir, under the direction of Debbie Gilbert, has been selected to perform at the 2011 National Flute Association Convention which will take place this year in Charlotte, North Carolina at the Charlotte Convention Center.  The group will perform on Thursday, Aug. 11 at 1 p.m. in the Flute Choir Showcase concert.  Those performing include:   Laura Breese, Sheree Budge, Karen Edwards, Andrea Giamberardino, Mary Ann Haffly, Gail Maas, Howard McCullers, Theresa McCullers, Ginger Melby, Tara Nadel, Barb Neal, Rolfe Pitts, Jessie Scalph, Elizabeth Schoepfle, Heidi Schuller, Jody Stein, Stacia Stribling, and Jim Waterman.

The flute choir will perform three original compositions for flute choir.  They include: “Running Away” by Melvin Lauf, Jr., “Butterfly” by Russell Nadel, and “Afternoon with the Kiddo” by Greg Lutz.

"Butterfly" was inspired by a series of events that happened to a friend of the family who had encountered a Red Admiral butterfly in downtown Washington, D.C. This butterfly followed him and remained with his family for 37 consecutive days.  Mr. Daniel Southerland wrote about his experience for the Washington Post Magazine, which published his article on Aug. 24, 2008 with the title page headline, "A near-miraculous encounter with a butterfly changes a man's life".  The virtuoso solo piccolo plays the part of the titular butterfly and will be performed by Woodbridge member Tara Nadel.  The world premiere of "Butterfly" was performed by the Woodbridge Flute Choir on March 20, 2011.  For the past five years Mr. Nadel was the General and Choral Music teacher at Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School in Alexandria, VA, located in Fairfax County.  In the fall he will begin teaching middle school music at the Potomac School in McLean, VA.

“Afternoon with the Kiddo” was written in 2009 and dedicated to the Woodbridge Flute Choir by Greg Lutz.  Mr. Lutz is a professional jazz musician and teaches the students at Kiski Area Schools near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  They are fortunate to have him as their teacher because every piece of music that Greg’s concert and jazz bands perform is custom-composed, so that each individual child is challenged at just above their own personal level.

“Running Away” by Melvin Lauf, Jr. was written in 1998 and premiered at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair on February 21, 1998 by the Columbia Flute Choir under the direction of Sharyn Byer.  It is a composition based on a recurring ostinato figure played by alto flute.  Many of his works for flute, piccolo and flute ensembles can be found at his publishing company www.flute.net.  From 1994 until 2010, Lauf was stationed at Fort Myer, Virginia with the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. In 2010 he retired from the U.S. Army and now lives in Newport News, Virginia.