Our second Colorado-based finalist, Paul Elwood is Associate Professor of Music Composition at the University of Northern Colorado. Paul was a finalist in 2014 for his flute duet, Marfa Lights (flute 2 doubling piccolo).
 
Q&A with Paul …
 
What about new music for flute appeals to you?
I love the timbral diversity of the instrument from diverse rich tones that the instrument produces to a wide variety of extended techniques available. I like the fact that many flutists with whom I've worked tackle a variety of techniques, rhythms, and compositions with an open mind.
 
Who are your favorite “new” music composers and why?
Thomas Adès for his inventive use of the instruments, and his complexity of writing at the micro- and macro-level; Augusta Read Thomas for not only musical construction but beauty of orchestration; Sean Friar and Andrew Norman ("Nouveau LA School Composers") for their youthful energy, virtuosic technique, and musicality, and Caroline Shaw for her unbridled and inspired writing.
 
What are your favorite new music pieces and why?
"Concentric Circles," violin concerto by Adès, a colorful, energetic composition; "Partita" by Caroline Shaw, for reasons cited above, and "Fighting Words" by Sean Friar using text from a variety of political speeches. There are a host of others from "classics" including Crippled Symmetry by Morton Feldman that uses beautiful, if random, combinations of colour between flute, glockenspiel, and piano, Stockhausen's early electronic work for their sheer monumental invention, and Messiaen's "Oiseaux Exotiques," an early strong influence on my work.
 
Do you have any upcoming events that you would like our friends and followers to know about?
I'm finishing a double concerto for violin and cello for the University of Northern Colorado orchestra, beginning a work for electric guitar and chamber ensemble commissioned by French experimentalist Jean Marc Montera, and working on an ongoing abstract multi-media homage to silent film actress Louise Brooks. She never compromised her intellectual integrity for fame - which ultimately cost her her career in film; there never seemed to wallow in self-pity after she made her last film (one of John Wayne's first) and ended up selling shoes in NYC for a spell. "Marfa Lights," the composition selected as a finalist in the FNMC competition, will be performed in November in Iowa City with the University of Iowa Percussion as part of my evening-length concept presentation titled "Strange Angels: exploring the paranormal."
 
What advice can you give to flutists about approaching new music in practice?
Listen to a lot of new music (listening to "old" music is a given) and keep an open mind to as much of it as you can.
 
More About Paul…
 
Paul Elwood’s music has been featured at festivals in Moscow, Sofia, Mexico City, Marseille, Wollongong (Australia), Edinburgh, Darmstadt, Madrid (July 2015), Strasbourg, and all over the U.S.A. Performers that have played his music include pianist Stephen Drury, percussionist Stuart Gerber, the Bent Frequency Duo, Zeitgeist (Minneapolis), the Callithumpian Consort (Boston), the North Carolina Symphony, the Charleston Symphony, the Wichita Symphony, Tambuco (the Mexican Percussion Quartet), saxophonist Jon Gudmundson, and Ensemble Signos (Mexico City). Recent recordings are on Innova Recordings as composer/banjoist with percussionist Famoudou Don Moye of the Art Ensemble of Chicago (titled Nice Folks, January 2015), Misfit Toys (2013, featuring drummer Matt Wilson, percussionist Dan Moore, and reed player Robert Paredes) and his own chamber and folk music, Stanley Kubrick’s Mountain Home (2011), with bassist Bertram Turetzky (2008), and Electric Cowboy Cacophony (2008).
 
He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and of the Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France), and he has won fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Artists Foundation, the Ucross Foundation, and Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain. In 2000 he won the Sigma Alpha-Iota Inter-American Music Awards and was awarded a 2007 commissioning grant from the Jerome Foundation to compose for Zeitgeist. Elwood’s compositions are published by C.F. Peters, Smith Publications, and his own Western Wear Music Publishing.
 
Elwood is an active five-string banjoist in both the realms of experimental and bluegrass music. In 2015 he played on the premiere of “Hanover” by Alvin Lucier, a composition using three banjos played with EBows with chamber ensemble. He is working on a new composition for solo banjo written for him by Christian Wolff
And he has collaborated with guitarist Jean-Marc Montera, guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, cellist Hank Roberts, the Callithumpian Consort of the New England Conservatory, famed banjoist Tony Trischka, Zeitgeist, bluegrass legend John Hartford, percussionist Eddie Prévost, and pipa player Min Xiao-Fen, among many others.
 
For more information visit his website: www.paul-elwood.com or blog http://soundchoice.typepad.com
 
If you enjoyed Marfa Lights check out Paul’s other works with flute…
 
A Vast Ocean of Promise
Instrumentation: solo bassoon with flute, clarinet, piano, two violins, viola, and five-string banjo
Duration: 18:00
Year of Composition: 1999
 
Along the Mystic Thruway
Instrumentation: flute, piano, cello
Duration: 9:00
Year of Composition: 1996
 
Alters Altered
Instrumentation: flute and piano
Duration: 6:00
Year of Composition: 1998
 
Blue Prairie
Instrumentation: yodeler with flute, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello
Duration: 15:00
Year of Composition: 1990
 
Circo De Montes, Teatro De Las Nubes
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello
Duration: 9:30
Year of Composition: 2001
 
Deirdre’s Lament
Instrumentation: flute, two percussion, piano, two violins, cello and banjo (Ballet)
Duration: 50:00
Year of Composition: 2010
 
Entre Irse Y Quesdarse
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello
Duration: 13:00
Year of Composition: 1990
 
Four Directions
Instrumentation:  flute (wearing Velcro-soled shoes)
Duration: 6:00
Year of Composition: 1991
 
Pilot Jack Knight: Aviator
Instrumentation: flute, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello
Duration: 4:30
Year of Composition: 1987
 
Road of Darkness, Distant Moon
Instrumentation: double bass, flute/piccolo, percussion, five-string banjo
Duration: 11:00
Year of Composition: 2003
 
Snow Falls Ceaselessly
Instrumentation: flute, cello, percussion, piano, and audience players
Duration: 15:00
Year of Composition: 1984
 
Stanley Kubrick’s Mountain Home
Instrumentation: soprano, Appalachian instruments (fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar) flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello
Duration: 25:00
Year of Composition: 2001
 
Strange Angels: Exploring the Paranormal
An evening length collection of works that includes Marfa Lights
Year of Composition: 2010
 
The Eternal Sky
Instrumentation: flute and piano
Duration: 9:30
Year of Composition: 2008
 
The Vault of Heaven, The Crystal Sea
Instrumentation: solo cello with flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, and violin
Duration: 20:00
Year of Composition: 1995
 
The Void Beneath The Coffee Table
Instrumentation: solo banjo, flute, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello
Duration: 15:00
Year of Composition: 1989
 
Two Extremities
Instrumentation: soprano, piano, bowed five-string banjo, flute, violin, and wine glasses
Duration: 7:30
Year of Composition: 1998
 
Under the Table
Instrumentation: soprano, flute, cello, and banjo
Duration: 10:30
Year of Composition: 2012
 
Usher
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello
Duration: 40:00
Year of Composition: 1988
 
Verbum Salutis
Instrumentation: flute, bass clarinet, cello, percussion, and hand signer
Duration: 8:00
Year of Composition: 1985
 

Cycling for solo flute has proved to be one of the most popular FNMC contest works. FNMC members have performed Cycling at the Florida Flute Association Convention, Great Plains Regional CMS Conference, and the Kentucky Flute Society Flute Fair. In this week’s Composer Spotlight we learn more about the composer of Cycling, Panayiotis Kokoras. Greek born and raised, Kokoras now lives in Denton, Texas where he is an Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of North Texas.
 
Q&A with Panayiotis…
 
Who/What are your favorite “new” music composers or pieces and why?
There are several pieces and composers I like a lot. However, my favorite ones are these that offer an uncompromising, imaginative, intellectual yet emotional listening experience that transcends my consciousness and changes me a bit after listening to it. I like music that pushes the boundaries of musical expression and experience, introduces new ways of music appreciation, it is mysteriously beautiful, creates high impact drama, and discovers unknown musical worlds that seem familiar to me. Fortunately, there are plenty of pieces that fulfill my likes.
 
What advice can you give to flutists about approaching new music in practice?
In sound-based compositions like Cycling, where the flutist "makes sounds" and doesn't "play notes", the relationship between performer and instrument is deliberated upon from the limitations of the traditional classical constraints of “idiomatic” playing or writing. When performing sound, one explores sound possibilities of the instrument beyond its classic sound. It establishes a musical culture where traditional flute training in the West has been forgotten or ignored. The flute is challenged out of its long historical context, its repertoire and its traditional training methods. For a flutist to touch the essence of sound composition, one should totally deliberate oneself from the past and completely redefine the relationship between performer/instrument, present/past, right/wrong, beautiful/ugly, stable/unstable, predictable/unpredictable.
Do you have any upcoming events that you would like our friends and followers to know about?
I just completed a piece for flute and electronics written for flutist Elizabeth McNutt to be premiered in 2017. For full score preview, please visit: http://panayiotiskokoras.com/en/works.html
 
I am also looking forward to the performance of my piece Connotations for string orchestra and electronics. The piece will be performed in France in 2017 by l'Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier.
https://youtu.be/2yIkL1kYozY
 
More about Panayiotis…
 
Kokoras is an internationally award-winning composer and computer music innovator, and currently an Associate Professor of composition at the University of North Texas. Born in Greece, he studied classical guitar and composition in Athens, Greece and York, England; he taught for many years at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Kokoras's sound compositions use timbre as the main element of form. His concept of "holophony" describes his goal that each independent sound (phonos), contributes equally into the synthesis of the total (holos). In both instrumental and electroacoustic writing, his music calls upon a "virtuosity of sound," emphasizing the precise production of variable sound possibilities and the correct distinction between one timbre and another to convey the musical ideas and structure of the piece. His compositional output is also informed by musical research in Music Information Retrieval compositional strategies, Extended techniques, Tactile sound, Detuned Systems, Robotics, Sound and Consciousness. More information at http://www.panayiotiskokoras.com
 
If you liked Cycling, check out these other works for flute…
 
Conscious Sound
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, piano, and cello
Year of Composition: 2014
 
Crama
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, and cello
Year of Composition: 2006
 
Delirium
Instrumentation: flute, piano, and cello
Year of Composition: 2008
 
Friction
Instrumentation: flute, bass clarinet, piano, and cello
Year of Composition: 2001
 
Metasound
Instrumentation: flute, trombone, percussion and double bass
Year of Composition: 2002
 
Morphallaxis
Instrumentation: flute, percussion, cello, and electronics
Year of Composition: 2008
 
Mosaicing
Instrumentation: flute and electronics
Year of Composition: 2016
 

Hui Tak-Cheung was a finalist in the newly composed category in 2015 for his solo work A Gleam Again, for solo flute doubling on singing bowl. A Gleam Again, under its final title, In Between II-Lu Chai, was premiered by its commissioner Chen-Yu Wu on July 16, 2015 at the Themes Star Theatre in Shanghai. Lu Chai is the second work in his In Between series. In Between II-Lu Chai has not yet been premiered in the United States. FNMC members, maybe one of you would like to give the American Premiere?!
 
Q&A with Tak…
 What about new music for the flute appeals to you?
Color. Like ink wash painting, a single black stroke can has a whole spectrum of color within, ranged from white, to gray.
 
Who is/are your favorite “new music” composer/s and why?
Too many to name one. Sciarrino comes to my mind at this moment (probably because I am listening to it right now).
 
Describe your musical background and current activities.
I am a composer. I love flute. I really love flute.
 
More About Tak…
 
HUI, Tak-Cheung is a Hong Kong-born composer. Over the course of his career, Hui has been awarded numerous prizes including the Atlas Ensemble Composition Competition 2014, Sound Icon BU/SI  Composition Competition 2015 and Inter-Sections Fellowship with commission prize. His recent collaborations include 10/10 Ensemble at the Huddersfield Cotemporary Music Festival, Nieuw Ensemble at the Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ’s An Evening of Today and Looptail Ensemble at the Gaudeamus Muziekweeks. He was also the residence composer of the Ligeti Academy by Asko Schoenberg in 2011 and European Composers’ Professional Development Programme by HCMF in 2012.
 
Hui started self-learning guitar and played in a rock band before he started his formal education of music at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and completed his masters’ degree in Composition at Conservatorium van Amsterdam under the supervision of Richard Ayres, Willem Jeths, and Wim Henderickx. During his academic years, he was awarded the Heng Seng Bank Scholarship and The Lions Music Foundation Scholarship. Currently, he was given a fellowship from Boston University Center for New Music to pursue a Doctoral degree under the supervision of Alex Mincek and Joshua Fineberg.
 
Hui’s compositions range from a variety of solo instrumental music to orchestral works, small and large ensemble music for western or traditional music, as well as multi-media work and Chinese Opera arrangement. His works have been published by Huddersfield Contemporary Record and Hove Record.
 
Learn more at www.huitakcheung.com
 
More works for flute by Hui Tak Cheung…
 
Lu Chai
Instrumentation: flute
Commissioned by flutist Chen-Yu Wu
 
In Betweeen II
Instrumentation: flute and video
Commissioned by World  within Gallery
 
Cracks between the reflections
Instrumentation: 2 fl, 2 ob, clarinets, perc, hp, pf, 2 vn, va, vc, db
Commissioned by the Nieuw Ensemble
 
Frozen In
Instrumentation: Shakuhachi, flute, alto sax, cello, double bass
 
As a fallen Leaf, on a waving stream
Instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinets, guitar, mandolin, harp, piano, percussion, violin, viola, cello, contrabass
Composed for the Nieuw Ensemble
 
Tale of an old picture
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, cello
Commissioned by Looptail
 
Way to the other Shore
Instrumentation: woodwind quartet, brass trio, piano, and string quartet
Composed for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
 
Magnified II
Instrumentation: pipa, sheng, zheng, flute, alto saxophone, and horn
Commissioned by the New Wind traditional music ensemble
 
The Mist inside
Instrumentation: recorder, flute, oboe, 2 clarients, bass clarinet, alto sax, horn, 2 violins, cello, harp, piano
Composed for the Ligeti Academy
 
Urban Hakka
Instrumentation: violin, flute, oboe, clarinet piano, percussion
Commissioned by the KHAPA Contemporary music ensemble
 
Magnified
Instrumentation: violin, contrabass, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, piano
 
The Mist
Instrumentation: harp, vibraphone, alto flute, bass clarinet