marktakeshimcgregor

I’ve been in love with the flute sonatas of J.S. Bach since I was a kid. This is actually more significant than it sounds: I was raised in suburbia, I grew up listening to Madonna and Platinum Blonde (remember them?), and classical music had almost no impact on my life beyond weekly band practice. But around the age of 15, I discovered the Bach b-minor sonata on a cassette tape, performed by Jean-Pierre Rampal and Robert Veyron-Lacroix, and I was enthralled. Seriously, I listened to it over and over again until I wore the tape out. I even learned the 1st movement of the b-minor, before realizing how incredibly difficult and complex a piece it is. And since then, I’ve performed all of the sonatas several times over, and the Partita for unaccompanied flute is a piece I regard as one of the most significant works in my repertoire. One of the biggest dreams of my adult life has been to record these incredible pieces.

This past August, organist Michael Murray and I set about to make that dream a reality. Michael and I have played together for years, and we’re good friends to boot — so it seemed like a logical pairing. For three days we recorded four sonatas, one partita and one organ fugue under the supervision of two amazing artists: our producer, Liz Hamel and our recording technician, Don Harder. We’re totally indebted to the guidance and support they provided (and continue to provide!). As we’re finishing up the editing process, Michael are I are becoming more and more pleased with the final results — but the process would never have even begun if it wasn’t for the enormous support we received from our friends, family, and arts lovers throughout the community. Over the summer Michael and I launched an Indiegogo campaign, and the response was overwhelming. We’re  indebted to the following people for their tremendous support, and for helping us fill the world with just a little bit more music:

Dale Aucoin

Sonja Boon

Paolo Bortolussi

Jennifer Butler and Michael Begg

Pat Christiansen

Jody Connors

Teresa Connors

Craig Day

Gabriel Dharmoo

Heather Farrell

Gordon Fitzell

Kara Gibbs

Vern Griffiths

Corey Hamm

Shizu Hayashi and Ron Hunt

Cyrena Huang and Mark Luchkow

Gloria Huh

Nigel Hunt

Chris Hutchinson

Hiroko King

Barbara Livingston

Jocelyn Morlock

Falcon O’Hara

Dave Pay and Brian Laberge

Jessie Paul, Kevin Sallows and Leem Munkee

Nancy Pow

Christie Reside

T. Benton Roark

Jeffrey Ryan

Alfredo Santa Ana

Joanna Schulz

Christopher Sklar

Marcus Takizawa

Edward Top

Rita Ueda

Elsie Uyeda

And seven fantastic anonymous donors.

Expect more news in the coming weeks, but in the meantime I thought it might be nice to leave you with our recording of the second movement of Bach’s b-minor sonata.