California Flutists Form an Ensemble That's Out of This World

By Meredith Laing

"Just about everyone who's joined our group has said, 'I don't know where you've been! I've been looking for just this kind of thing!'" says Kerri Arakawa, director of the Orange County Flute Ensemble (OCFE), a flute choir made up of a mix of professional and amateur musicians. Founded in 2008, the ensemble performs five concerts per year and also plays at various social, business, and educational events. Though it's still young, the group is growing quickly, thanks to the enthusiasm and talent of its members.

Arakawa, a public school music teacher and private flute instructor was organizing her private students' spring recital in 2008 and, as usual, planned to combine the students in an ensemble for the final piece. But this time, she decided she wanted to play, too. "I called a bunch of flute players that I knew in the area and said, 'Let's play a couple of pieces at my students' recital,' and it was a big success," Arakawa recalls. "Then, people started asking me, 'Oh, are you starting up a flute choir?'" She figured it could be a fun experience, so she went for it.

That summer, OCFE started out with six members. Just two years later, the flute choir has nearly tripled in size, with 16 flutists ranging in age from teenagers to senior citizens. With such a huge outpouring of interest, the group has begun auditioning new members to ensure everyone is able to keep up with the level of repertoire.

As the ensemble grew, it also developed the need for a conductor, and Arakawa readily stepped into that role. She notes that one of the special things about a flute choir, or any group made up of just one type of instrument, is that, unlike playing with a community band or orchestra, the conductor plays the same instrument as everyone in the ensemble. "I can offer specific directions. Rather than saying, 'You're going flat,' I can say specifically, 'Do this or that, and then you won't go flat,' and that's a huge advantage," says Arakawa.

"There also can be a community consensus about how to solve things," she explains. "There's a lot of whispering and helping, a lot of questions and answers back and forth throughout rehearsals."

To keep the group community-oriented and noncompetitive, members of the group do not audition for seating; instead, part assignments and seating are frequently rotated. This allows amateurs to be paired with professionals, and also gives everyone a chance to play each of the four main instruments of the flute family: piccolo, C, alto, and bass flute. When OCFE attends the National Flute Convention in Anaheim, California, this summer, many of the members are looking forward to trying out the much more rare contrabass and sub-contrabass flutes, as well.

If you can play one, you can play every type of flute, since embouchure, mechanisms, and even fingerings, for the most part, are consistent across the instruments. "Most of our members had never played the alto or bass flute before," says Arakawa. "It's been very positive to be able to offer them that opportunity, and it's been really fun for me to watch them grow."

Between the highest note on the piccolo and lowest note on the bass, the flute choir offers more than a five-octave range. In the past few years, more composers and arrangers are recognizing this versatility and are writing more pieces for flute choir. Plus, many string quartet arrangements work well for the ensemble, as the instrument ranges are similar. "There is a huge library out there, and we're still pretty new, so we've only scratched the surface in terms of repertoire," says Arakawa.

Even within OCFE, there may be a flute composer in the making. Dr. Misty Bentz, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Irvine, wrote a piece based on data collected from her study of black holes. The piece was performed at an OCFE space-themed concert, which took place at the university observatory at the end of April. Four different galaxies were represented in the piece, each given its own movement, and pitches were determined based on data numbers from Bentz's research. "She had never composed anything before, and it was beautiful!" exclaims Arakawa. "She also put together a slide show with photos of different galaxies for the performance. It was really fascinating."

Bentz is one of many members who took some time off from flute (eight years, in her case), but now has the opportunity to perform again. One member of OCFE even started flute lessons as an adult, so this is her first ensemble experience.

Arakawa recommends that adults interested in learning the flute take lessons for at least a year or two, from a private teacher who specializes in working with adults. Then, once the basics are mastered, playing in a group with other people can be a great source of motivation. "One of our members told me that since she started playing with this group, she's been picking up the flute every day," says Arakawa. "She said that sometimes the motivation is not wanting to sound bad at rehearsal, but sometimes it's just a fun melody that she wants to play."

"I think that playing with the group gives people more inspiration to practice," Arakawa adds. "There's a lot more fluting going on in Orange County now!"

Meredith Laing enjoys playing chamber music as a violinist with the magnolia string quartet in Syracuse, New York.

Interested in the flute? Here's another feature story from our archives, Highf'lutin, Rediscovers "Flute Fever"