When did you begin the flute?

I began the flute in school, and a friend loaned me her old battered-up instrument .

 

Why to have chosen this instrument?

I fell in love with it right away and the next year, when I was twelve years old, I decided to become a musician. My parents were very supportive to me and that meant everything to me as a young person! I loved the flute because it is so much like the human voice, singing in nature. It is like the sunlight dancing in the trees. It is like a stream flowing in the woods. And also it can be the voice of our hearts, saying what cannot be said in words.

 

Where do you prefer to play?

I love to play the flute in large concert halls and also in small rooms with friends gathered together. I love to play outside. I love to make music with other artists, I love to play and record classical and also Brazilian music. I play often the music of my own country, because it is written in my soul. I love to play when people are dancing.

 

Which is your more beautiful memory of flute?

My happiest memory is of playing JS Bach on the stage of Carnegie Hall one night when there was a great blizzard of snow in New York. There was talk of cancelling the concert, because we thought nobody would be able to come. But the hall was completely full of people! And the music filled every corner and every heart.

 

Which is your worst memory?

My worst memory is when I started laughing in the middle of a performance of a very serious piece and I could not stop. It was not funny. But I couldn’t stop. It was a nightmare. Really, there have been many more serious sad things that have happened to me but I can’t remember them as clearly as that one!

 

Where do you dream to go to play?

I dream to play as long as I have breath. I pray for that. I am grateful to help others with my music: to play at their births and weddings, to play them from this life to the next, to play in rememberance.

 

Did you already play as a flute soloist in an orchestra?

I started out to be a flutist in an orchestra, but somehow became a soloist in a time when there were very few flute soloists, especially women. I am grateful to have helped to light the way. I play a Brannen Brothers flute, a Powell flute, and a Haynes piccolo.

 

Which flute do you prefer? (piccolo, low, baroque flute…)

I love the traverso, and hope one day to learn how to play it.

 

 

Your preferred music?

I love Mozart and Debussy, Bach and Couperin, Berio and Boulez.

 

 

Which message would you like to pass all to the flutists?

My message to any artist is to keep the faith, to not lose heart, to give thanks for your gift, to pass it on to others. My message is that if there is even one single person whose life has been made better by your music at any concert you play, your presence in this life is explained!