Steven's Music Studio

The Thayer Conservaroty Flute Choir was founded in 1986 by Paige MacDonald at the Thayer Conservatory in South Lancaster, MA. I joined the flute choir a year or two later after playing in the Thayer Conservatory Flute Ensemble for a year. It was a lot of fun playing in the flute choir from the days when there were only a handful of players to the end where we are have over twenty flutists and became the Thaye Conservatory Flute Orchestra.

The Thayer Conservatory Flute Choir had a wide range of flutes at its disposal. Not only did we have concert flutes and piccolos, we had an E-flat flute which is pitched between the concert flute and the piccolos, a Flute D'Amour which is pitched in B-flat, one whole step below the concert flute, several alto and bass flutes and one contrabass flute called Slick. The contrabass flutes are rare. There are only a handful in the world. Ours was the first one sold in North America. When Paige decided that the contrabass flute was not low enough for the Flute Orchestra so she added a double contrabass flute to the choir. The double contrabass flute, the third ever made, plays an octave below the contrabass and three octaves below the concert flute. To top off our flock of flutes, we even had a Mutant Head Joint made by the Landell Flutes of Vermont. The Mutant Head Joint is a head joint that has been altered so that it produces a reedy sound which works well on both ragtime pieces and organ transcriptions.

The Thayer Conservatory Flute Choir generated some great memories for me. We hosted a Flute Choir from Germany in 1990 and then we went to Germany two years later. It was a fun tour -- seven concerts in two weeks and a lot of sightseeing! In the late 1990's, we hosted a Flute Choir from France. The Flute Choir performed several times with the Thayer Symphony Orchestra. We also performed at Malls around Christmas time.

We participated in many activities with other Flute Choirs in the area. There were two Flute Orchestra Concerts with over 60 flutists performing together hosted by my Flute Choir, the Indiana Hill Flute Choir from Littleton, MA and the George Washington University Flute Choir with Paula Robison as our guest soloist. The first concert was in Harvard, MA and the second concert a year later in Washington D.C.

My favorite memories from the Flute Choir are been performing at the National Flute Convention the last time it was in Boston and performing on stage at Symphony Hall in Boston. When we played at the National Flute Convention, we performed with two contrabass flutes and I was playing one of them. The second contrabass flute was on its way to South America and was on display at the convention.

We have played at Symphony Hall twice. The first time was during a flute choir event organized by the Greater Boston Flute Society where several flute choirs got together and performed for each other. The second time was during Symphony Hall's Open House this winter. The Flute Choir even made the 11 o'clock news with that performance. And as usual, whenever we are video taped, the Bass Section is almost completely left out. (For some reason, the camera seems to remain focused on the ladies of the Flute Choir :-) This time, I was on the tape. For at least one frame, you can see a quarter of my face behind flutes, music stands and female flutists. I love playing on the stage at Symphony Hall. The acoustics of that hall even makes me sound good!

Alas, in 1999 I changed jobs and was no longer able to make it rehearsals. The Thayer Conservatory Flute Choir/Orchestra continued on for another year. In the Spring of 2000, the Flute Choir played its last concert, after which Paige moved out of the area. The Thayer Conservatory Flute Choir had a great run and left an impact on many flutists in the Greater Boston Area.