New Album Feature: Alexa Still’s WISH, The Music of Valerie Coleman
Alexa Still, New Zealander and professor of flute at Oberlin Conservatory, is known for her internationally acclaimed 20+ CDs, most of which feature premiere recordings and music by lesser-known composers, women and BIPOC. Her career began with a decade in an orchestra (principal flute in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) and moved steadily into teaching full-time and soloist work, which has led her to teaching and performing around the world (16 countries) including many premiere performances.
Brief history of the CD
Valerie Coleman's music conveys really important stories... This CD is a Pandemic CD because we felt this project couldn't wait! We wanted to make sure that flutists learn about Coleman's music for flute and that her flute music also gets the acclaim it is due along with everything else she is writing.
Tracklist
1 Human Family- Maya Angelou (Spoken word)
2 Fanmi Imen (premiere recording)
3-6 Legends
7 Requiem Milonga (premiere recording)
8 Wish- Fred D'Aguiar (Spoken word)
9 Wish
10 Danza de la Mariposa (premiere recording)
11 Amazonia (premiere recording)
12 Elegy - Maya Angelou
13 Elegy (for fute ensemble) (premiere recording)
1. Why did you record this CD?
Because I so deeply admire Valerie, and I love playing her music.
2. Where did you get your Inspiration?
Valerie :) , Maya Angelou and Fred D'Aguiar
3. Facts about the project?
I am really proud of this project. Evan Hines, the pianist involved in this project, is awesome, and so is my college President, Carmen Twillie Ambar, who recited the poems in one take!
The flutists involved in Elegy are mostly my students and did an awesome job too... one got Covid, so the sub for her is local flutist and body mapping extraordinaire, Kelly Mollnow Wilson. Elegy is intended to be done without a conductor but because we had to spread out miles (because of, you guessed it, COVID) Tim Weiss helped us out by conducting.
It was a tremendous pleasure to communicate with poet Fred D'Aguiar!