Bri any Tro er flute
Cathie Apple, Mathew Krejci, flutes
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe
Nicolasa Kuster, bassoon
Guy Powell, guitar
Jonathan Latta, percussion
Jacqueline Venter, harp
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
7:30 pm
Recital Hall
Density 21.5 (1936)
Syrinx (1913)
Edgard Varèse (1883–1965)
Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
Fantasia on a Theme of Syrinx (2015)
Cathie Apple, flute
Mathew Krejci, flute
Oiseaux Romantiques de Paris (2018)
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe
Nicolasa Kuster, bassoon
Hirokazu Fukushima (b. 1971)
Canyon Echoes (1991) Dance
Wrought Iron (2012)
Guy Powell, guitar
Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941)
Katherine Hoover (1937–2018)
Andrea Reinkemeyer (b. 1976)
Jonathan Latta, percussion
Sonata for Flute and Harp, op. 56 (1996)
Jacqueline Venter, harp
Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961)
PROGRAM NOTES
Varèse: Density 21.5
Composed in 1936 for flutist Georges Barrère, Density 21.5 was written to inaugurate his new platinum flute, an instrument with a material density of 21.5 g/cm³—hence the title. Interestingly, Barrère’s prized platinum flute was lost after his passing, adding an air of mystery to this groundbreaking piece, which remains a cornerstone of the solo flute repertoire.
The piece contrasts moments of percussive attack with lyrical introspection, embodying both the weight and brilliance of the platinum flute’s timbre. Although its jagged atonality and dynamic extremes set it apart, Density 21.5 shares an affinity with Claude Debussy’s Syrinx (1913) in its sense of solitude and improvisatory flow. Both works redefine the flute’s voice, yet Varèse’s composition carries a raw intensity that reflects his modernist vision.
—Brittany Trotter
Debussy: Syrinx
Fukushima: Fantasia on a Theme of Syrinx
Debussy’s Syrinx was written as incidental music to the uncompleted play Psyché by Gabriel Mourey, and was originally called Flûte de Pan. The title of the piece references the myth of Syrinx, which tells the story of a nymph pursued by the god Pan, who falls in love with her. Tragically, as Syrinx does not return the love to Pan, she turns herself into a water reed and hides in the marshes. Pan cuts the reeds to make his pipes, in turn killing his love. In Fantasia on a Theme of Syrinx, the phrases of Debussy’s work have been echoed, repeated, and divided for three flutes by Hirokazu Fukushima, creating an even more haunting and impressionistic effect.
—Brittany Trotter
Hailstork: Oiseaux Romantiques de Paris
As charming as its title suggests, this short wind trio, Oiseaux Romantiques (Romantic Birds), draws inspiration from the calls of birds, weaving them into a vibrant musical conversation. The bird calls appear throughout each voice and together by use of counterpoint and harmonization within the ensemble, creating a lively and colorful texture. Infused with the elegance of Baroque music and a distinct French aesthetic, the piece balances sophistication with a playful energy.
—Brittany Trotter
PROGRAM NOTES
Hoover: Canyon Echoes
This piece was inspired by a book called The Flute Player, a simple and beautifully illustrated retelling of an Apache folktale by Michael Lacapa. It is the story of two young Apaches from different areas of a large canyon, where the streams ripple and the wind sings in the cottonwoods. They meet at a Hoop Dance, and dance only with each other. The next day, as the girl works up the on the side of the canyon in her father's fields, the boy sits below by a stream and plays this flute for her (flute-playing was a common manner of courtship). She puts a leaf in the stream which flows down to him, so he knows she hears. This continues for a time, until the boy is woken one morning and told he is of age to join the hunt—a journey of some weeks, leaving momentarily. The girl still listens each day for the flute until, feeling abandoned, she falls ill and dies. When the boy returns, he runs to play for her—but there is no leaf. When he learns of her death, he disappears into the hills, and his flute still echoes when the breezes blow through the cottonwoods, and the streams ripple in the canyon.
—Katherine Hoover
Reinkemeyer:
Wrought Iron
Wrought Iron (2012) was commissioned by the Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra as part of the Capital Region Heritage Commissions project. This piece is a musical celebration of the beautiful metal work that crowns the iconic Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The shapes found within the iron work—circles, triangles, and rectangles—dictated the shape of the percussion instruments used—cymbals, tambourine, bongos, triangle, and vibraphone. The music reflects the light, airy and beautifully ornate quality of the metal castings.
While composing this piece, I was also drawn to another fascinating aspect of this building: architect George B. Post used metal to look like stone. In his attempt to make a European-looking building on an American budget, he fashioned a metallic exoskeleton to house a truly unique acoustic space. I have similarly paid tribute to the work of European artists who came before me, twisting elements of pieces by Beethoven and Chopin—two composers whose names grace the ceiling of the hall—into something new. Like the cast aluminum used in the 1990s renovation to replace the original iron, and the woodwind made of metal, things are not always what they seem.
—Andrea Reinkemeyer
Liebermann: Sonata for Flute and Harp
This is a story about a dream come true.
At the 1990 NFA Conference, I was asked by a well-known flutist to turn pages for her accompanist during the finals of the Young Artist competition. It had become a sub-specialty for me, so I agreed, not knowing the rehearsal would have an impact on events far into the future.
On the program was the flute and piano sonata of Lowell Liebermann. In manuscript form. In a wire-bound book. It was a page-turner’s nightmare, actually, but that was not what captured my imagination and interest. I had never heard music like that before. Dark and brooding at one moment, and then bursting forth with muscular fireworks the next, the fabulous new effects of rhythm, harmonies, and sheer brilliant technique left me spell bound as I dodged the pianist’s left hand. Exiting the rehearsal, I was able to whistle, hum, and hear almost the entire sonata in my head. Wondering when the last time that happened might have been, I resolved that when it came time for me to commission a new work, it would be by Lowell Liebermann.
Several years later, my flute and harp duo was awarded the Chamber Music America Residency Grant Award. During that time, Anne Sullivan (harpist) and I decided that we would commission a work for flute and harp that would be a significant addition to the repertoire. I thought immediately of Lowell. Commissioning is a fascinating process. I recommend it to all musicians. Being part of this creative process is an experience like no other. As musicians, we are re-creators. Just thinking of what it would be like to compose a work unlike any other is mind boggling to me.
—Joan
Sparks
Prize-winning flutist Brittany Trotter leads a diverse career as an educator, soloist, and collaborator. She is the assistant professor in flute and Woodwind Program chair at University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music.
Trotter has been awarded first prize in numerous national and regional competitions including the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition in woodwinds in the states of West Virginia (2017, 2016), Wyoming (2015, 2014), and Mississippi (2009). She has also competed as a semi-finalist in the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Since moving to California in 2021, Trotter has performed as a substitute with most of the central valley regional orchestras such as the Stockton Symphony Orchestra, Modesto Symphony Orchestra, and Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra. Equally versed in post-classical contemporary and experimental music as well as electro-acoustic music and interdisciplinary works, she has performed with the San Francisco Contemporary players and premiered new works for the flute nationally.
Trotter regularly performs, teaches, and presents at numerous universities and music conventions. Recipient of the NFA’s 2020 Graduate Research Competition for her dissertation entitled, Examining Music Hybridity and Cultural Influences in Valerie Coleman’s Wish Sonatine and Fanmi Imen, Trotter continues to actively study the merging of western classical music, diverse culture, and modern popular music.
A native from Laurel, Mississippi, Trotter has received degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi (BM, BME), University of Wyoming (MM), and West Virginia University (DMA, Certificate of University Teaching). Outside her professional performing and teaching life, she enjoys running, crafting, and reading self-help books.
Cathie Apple is the flute instructor at Sacramento State’s School of Music and one of the founders of Citywater new music ensemble. She is a regular performer at the Music at Noon concert series and the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento. She has also performed with the Sacramento Philharmonic, Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra, and the California Symphony.
An avid supporter of new music, Apple has commissioned and/or premiered many works for flute and various chamber ensembles, collaborated with composers such as Clare Shore, Nicholas Deyoe, Brent Chancellor, Nell Shaw Cohen, and Sunny Knable.
Along with her specialization in modern music, Apple performs regularly on traverso, with baroque ensembles Sinfonia Spirituosa and the Sacramento Baroque Soloists. Her traverso is made by Martin Wenner and is modeled after a mid-18th century flute designed by Italian flute-maker Carlo Palanca.
Apple maintains a private teaching studio in Sacramento and for over a decade was the flute instructor at the Pacific Institute of Music in Folsom. Previous appointments include second flutist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and adjunct faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Southern Utah University. While in Las Vegas, Apple founded NEXTET new music ensemble, and performed with them at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Apple earned her doctorate from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Amy Porter. During that time, she also taught at Interlochen Arts Camp and was the yoga instructor for Porter’s Anatomy of Sound workshop. Apple is a fitness instructor, personal trainer, and owner of a cycling studio.
Flutist Mathew Krejci, University of the Pacific’s professor emeritus, is principal flute of the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra and. In 2002, his Ariel Woodwind Quintet, affiliated with the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento, substituted for the Warsaw Woodwind Quintet on a threeweek tour of the Midwest United States.
Krejci has been principal flute of the Bear Valley Music Festival where he appeared as soloist on the Bach's Suite in B minor and the Concerto for Flute and Harp by Mozart, the Ibert, Concerto for Flute, and the Honegger, Concerto da Camera. In 1997, Krejci and his violinist son, Evan, were invited to tour the Slovak Republic as part of the Slovaks Living Abroad Festival. In 2000, he played a solo recital of contemporary American and Czech music in the DOM U KAMENEHO ZVONU in Prague, the Czech Republic. Recently Krejci toured with the Wild Basin Woodwind Quintet performing in Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center and American University. He also performed at the 2004 convention of the Czech-Slovak Society of Arts and Sciences in Olomouc, Czech Republic. Additionally, Krejci has recorded for the V’TAE, Albion, and Klavier labels which features the jazz suites of Claude Bolling.
Oboist and electronic musician Kyle Bruckmann is assistant professor of practice and program director of Varied Ensembles at University of the Pacific. He freelances throughout the greater Bay Area’s Euro-classical music scene while actively producing experimental solo and collaborative work within an international community of improvisers and sound artists. His current ensemble affiliations include Splinter Reeds, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Quinteto Latino, Eco Ensemble, sfSound, and the Stockton Symphony.
Bruckmann tramples genre boundaries in widely ranging work as a composer/performer, educator and New Music specialist. His creative output—extending from conservatory-trained foundations into gray areas encompassing free jazz, post-punk rock, and the noise underground—can be heard on more than 100 recordings. Three decades of chameleonic gigging have found him performing in settings including the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Venice Biennale, 924 Gilman, Berghain, a 12-foot diameter bomb shelter, and dangling 30 feet in the air by a harness from a crane.
Bassoonist Nicolasa Kuster joined the faculty of University of the Pacific's Conservatory of Music in the fall of 2008 and added associate dean of academic affairs to her role ten years later. She balances her full-time teaching and administrative position with a rich orchestral, chamber, and solo performing life. Her favorite entrepreneurial projects have been the launching the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Bassoon Symposium. Kuster is principal bassoon of the Stockton Symphony and the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestras, and second bassoon of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera and the Monterey Symphonies. Previous positions include principal of Wichita Symphony (also serving on the faculty of Wichita State University), and second of Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Virginia Symphony. She spent six summer seasons performing and recording with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Italy. She is a double degree graduate from Oberlin College and Conservatory with a bachelor's degree in bassoon performance and a bachelor's in religion. Her solo album, Metamorphosis, can be found at NicolasaKuster.com.
Prior to joining the faculty at University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music, Guy Powell taught at Columbia Community College. Currently, he also teaches at San Joaquin Delta College and Modesto Junior College. Powell received his bachelor’s degree in classical guitar from CSU Sacramento and his master’s degree in classical guitar from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His principal teachers included Richard Savino, David Tannenbaum and Marc Teicholz.
Powell has played around the U.S. as soloist, ensemble and musical theatre performer, and participated in such events as the Guitarraganza Festival, Guitar Foundation of America, Portland Guitar Festival, Cal Arts Festival, La Guitarra Festival and the California Bach Festival. He has also served as a codirector for the Guitarraganza Festival (2015-17). In addition to regular solo performances, Powell is also a member of the chamber ensemble Tritarra, a guitar trio specializing in adapting more eclectic genres of music for the concert stage. Recently, he has formed a new ensemble, Duo Sonik, with fellow guitarist Travis Silvers.
With a great passion for teaching and public outreach, Powell has joined Guitars Not Guns as a director for their San Joaquin County chapter. A nonprofit organization with chapters in thirteen states, the organization provides guitars and music lessons to foster children and at-risk youth as an alternative to violence. In the spring of 2022, Powell was elected as a faculty member for the Delta chapter of the society of Pi Kappa Lambda.
Jonathan Latta is an associate professor of practice in percussion and program director of ensembles at University of the Pacific. He has also maintained an active performing career as a percussionist, having performed with the Stockton Symphony, Modesto Symphony, and Sacramento Philharmonic and serving as principal for the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra in Durango, Colorado. Prior to moving to California in 2014, Latta was director of percussion studies for six years at Fort Lewis College in Durango, teaching applied percussion, percussion ensemble, non-Western music, orchestration, and jazz. Latta was chair of the University Pedagogy Committee for the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) for six years as well as a member of the PAS Education Committee.
From 2002 to 2006, Latta was a member of the United States Air Force Band of the Golden West, performing in over three hundred performances on percussion/timpani for the concert band, drum set for the Commanders Jazz Ensemble, marching percussion for the ceremonial band, and drum set for the Golden West Dixie Ramblers. These performances included the 2003 Tournament of Roses Parade, the 2004 Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, and the interment of former President Ronald W. Reagan.
Latta has performed as a chamber musician in the Durango Chamber Music Festival, the Animas Music Festival, and at the Percussive Arts Society International Conference. In 2019 Latta performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall with University of the Pacific’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Most recently, Latta has been heard as a soloist and helped produce the Pacific Wind Bands’ recording, From a Deep Blue Sky (2024).
Jacquelyn Venter is an active performer and teacher whose performance has been described as “lovely, meditative, and exquisitely played.”
Venter has been featured as a guest artist with the Grammy award-winning choir ensemble, Conspirare. Their album Pablo Neruda: A Poet Sings, featuring Venter with the choir, was nominated for a 2016 Grammy.
Venter has held faculty positions at William Jessup University, Luther College, the UNI Suzuki School, University of Texas String Project, Longhorn Music Camp, Round Rock Independent School District, and served as director of the Young Texas Harp Ensemble. She holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music (BM), University of Northern Iowa (MM), and University of Texas at Austin (DMA). She currently maintains a private studio in Sacramento and plays with ensembles throughout the region.
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