Confession: I have always been a flute choir nerd. I love the idea of creating community and camaraderie within what’s really a very competitive profession — and let’s face it, flutists can be quite competitive with one another. So an environment where we convene in large numbers to work towards a common goal is, I’ve found, always a nice change. I can only assume, of course, that this warm, fuzzy, socialist euphoria is what violinists feel every day of their orchestral lives, right? Am I right??

Well, at any rate, multiple flutes sound bloody awesome.

This past May I packed my bags and headed over to Montreal for an intense and hugely rewarding week with Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal plus (ECM+), specifically the ECM+Flûtes with cellist Chloé Dominguez, under the direction of Véronique Lacroix. On May 18, we presented Les Cavaliers de l’Apocalypse, which featured the premiers four new works by Canadian composers, each inspired by one the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Charles-Antoine Fréchette‘s Torpeurs d’été was, in fact, an older work (2009/10), but its sparse, spectralist soundscapes perfectly captured the essence of the Black Horse, Famine; Brian Harman‘s virtuosic Dans la nuit profonde, complete with echoes of military marches and cannons, was inspired by the Red Horse, War; James O’Callaghan took the Green Horse, Pestilence, as the point of departure for his Into Sections — a work that cunningly fused the extended technique palette of the eight flutes with field recordings of insects; and Paul Steenhuisen wrote a kaleidoscopic (and not entirely pessimistic) take on Death — Y la conciencia-espejo se licua — complete with an extended slide whistle solo for yours truly. Don’t believe me? Check it out:

The evening was completed by a theatrical flutist tour-de-force: Dissection de l’oubli by Evelin Ramon, performed by the jaw-dropping Marie-Hélène Breault. The beautifully made video below provides some tantalizing glimpses into these complex, bizarre, and alluring sound worlds. Here’s to a Four Horsemen remount in Vancouver soon!