Flute Convention

I recently went to the National Flute Association's annual convention held in Columbus, Ohio. On this page, I want to tell you what I experienced and saw, and hopefully encourage you to go to next year's convention, in Dallas, Texas.

I think the most impressive part of the convention was the exhibit hall....you would never believe how many flute makers were there! They also had music publishers, software companies, and anything else flute-related that you can think of. If you are thinking about upgrading your flute, do it at a convention. Some of the flutes I tried were a solid gold Muramatsu flute (beautiful sound), a vertical flute, and I even tried a contrabass flute! I went to the convention in search of a wooden piccolo, so I tried tons.

Also at the exhibit hall, they had so much music! Anything you can think of was there, even pieces that had their world premire at the convention.

I didn't have a lot of time to attend classes or concerts - my flute choir performed on Saturday. I got to see Trevor Wye's class. He played the Carnvial of Venice on 55 different flutes. Besides the bass, alto, and C flutes, he had a paper flute, light up flutes, electronic flutes, old flutes....anything you can imagine. It was a very funny and interesting class. Not all flute classes are boring....

I also attended the National High School Flute Choir concert, made up of flutists who had to audition to be in it. They were awesome!

Unfortunately, those were the only concerts I could attend. There were concerts and classes going on every hour! Alto flute techniques, warm-ups, tone, and excerises were some of the topics of the other classes. if the NFA convention is going to be in your area one year, I definetely recommend that you attend it (especially if you want a new flute/piccolo/alto flute/bass flute).

Go to the NFA's website www.nfaonline.org to find out more information about next year's convention.