At 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, in Westmont College’s Deane Chapel, the incomparable Jill Felber, professor of flute at UCSB, presents a flute master class, featuring performances by the advanced private students of Andrea Di Maggio (Westmont College) and Dr. Linda Holland (SB City College).
The collaborative pianists for the master class are Neil Di Maggio and Anne Weger.
Professor Felber, who has performed to great acclaim all over the world and has degrees from the University of Michigan and from Bowling Green State University, will coach the students through their prepared pieces and will work additionally with each aspiring flutist and his or her accompanist.
“This is a performance class we have been organizing for years for our private students as an opportunity to work with a master teacher — who just happens to be the teacher both Linda and I studied with for graduate school,” said Andrea Di Maggio. “It’s wonderful to offer these types of advanced experiences to students of all ages. Jill Felber is a phenomenal teacher and performer and will be inspiring and entertaining.”
When I first moved to Santa Barbara, donkey’s years ago, I was shamefully ignorant of the rich literature for the flute and the great artists who perform it.
I knew the concertos of Pergolesi and Mozart, Griffes and Nielsen and had heard of Jean-Pierre Rampal and James Galway, but as a music lover I was raised on vinyl, and I rarely put a flute record on the turntable.
Once in Santa Barbara and writing about the classical music scene here, I was surprised (and delighted) to discover that the scene to a large extent was held together and powered by a number of remarkably gifted flute players, working separately or in networks of friendship.
It certainly didn’t hurt that most of these wonderful musicians were also beautiful women (always excepting Adrian Spence, of course).
As performer and mentor, Felber has been a key figure in this movement, and any chance to see and hear her in action is one not to be missed.
The flute master class is free and open to the public. For more information, please call the Westmont Music Department at 805.565.6040.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.