Sunday, November 09, 2008

Congratulations, Big Congratulations

Claire Chase, the astonishing flutist (and founder/executive director) of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), has won first prize in the 2008 Concert Artists Guild Competition.
She played only contemporary music for the audition, and brought along not only a raft of flutes, but microphones, laptops, etc., etc. GEAR.

I saw ICE play music of Magnus Lindberg at the Kaplan Penthouse during the 2006 Mostly Mozart Festival; their casual virtuousity and enthusiasm were a joy to behold. And Claire Chase is the kind of flutist who takes the instrument to all sorts of musical and technical extremes, far, far beyond what most flutists try for or even think possible. A great musician, she is, so three cheers for this recognition.

6 comments:

David said...

Greetings, Lisa,

I saw your reaction to our great bass blogger's San Galgano photo (in the Jarvifest, with which I heartily concur) and thought you might like your own nostalgia rekindled in a few shots from my own blog entry on Glastonbury.

Keep up the good work.

Lisa Hirsch said...

For some reason, the direct link doesn't work, but I was able to search for and find the posting. Thank you so much!

David said...

Sorry, Lisa - I think I might have put an extra / in the hyperlink, but since you fished around and found it, I'm glad. Ah, the magic of monastic ruins.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Yes, indeed! It didn't take much poking around, anyway, thanks to the search box. :)

Anonymous said...

Lisa, how on earth did I miss you at that 2006 Lindberg concert!

I agree: Claire is a fantastic player, always looking for new forms of expression. In 2007 I heard her in a flute-and-electronics recital at Galapagos, the performing arts space in Brooklyn. (Pre-show music over the house sound system: Xenakis.)

Lisa Hirsch said...

We didn't know each other then. :)

I really really hope ICE can do a concert series in SF some time. Goodness knows, we have plenty of great new music players.