Hi

I`ve been teaching myself to play flute for a few months and dont really know yet of many flute players. I now think I`d benefit from a good tutor to help on some areas so am making enquiries in my area to try and find a tutor. I think I`d benefit too from listening to more flute music but dont know where to start..... Can anyone advise on some good inspirational players to listen to?

Cheers
Nayna

I noticed that when I tried finding flute peices to listen too. I wanted some establish artists to listen too but the major one is James Galway. He`s got TONS of cds but there is Rhonda Larson (sounds great), Alexis Still (I think that`s how you spell her name, and she`s I think more into modern peices if I`m not mistaken), there`s a guy with samples of his recordings online named Craig Goodman that sounded very nice. There must be others but those are one`s I`ve heard of unless you buy colaborations of flute pieces and get a varity of various flute players from orchestras that recorded the cd which is also great to listen to different flute players.

James Galway seems to be the major published solo flute artist and can find anything from irish tunes, concertos, to movie themes. I heard a song online from Rhonda Larson`s website (just key her name in a search engine) and on one of her cds she played a piece called "Still" and was beautiful and very technical.

Hey. Many thanks for that reply. I got a James Galway CD at the weekend and have been looking at Rhonda Larson`s website this morning. Looking forward to listening to some of the samples of her music later when I`m not in work. :-)

As a classically trained flutest I can say that Jean Pierre Rampal (decessed) is known as the greatest flute player of all time. He has thousands of recordings from everying under the sun. Galway is a great player too but a lot of his more resent stuff has a lot of synth accompaniment - not my taste but it could be yours.

Another great flutest is Robert Aitkens - he`s Canadian and does a lot of modern stuff - I mean really modern, multi phonic pitches, whistle tones, humming and singing while playing, harmonics, etc .... don`t be scared off this guy is amazing and also a composer.

If you are looking to just listen, go to the "Canadian Music Centre" site and check out composers that write for the flute - I can recommend Norma Beecroft (listen to sample selections - all very different, Robert plays for all of them)

If you like rock/jazz listen to Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

Thanks Christina for your very helpful reply. I agree with you on not being keen on the synth accompaniment to flute. I really like Ian Anderson and will be looking up some of his work and will check out the others you mentioned. Cheers :-)

I would have to agree with Christina.
I believe that Rampal had a style that even Galway could not produce. (But we all play differently.)
Of course Galway is an incredible flutist, I just don`t prefer a lot of show tunes and prefer Rampal`s style a bit more.

Rampal..defn one of the best..beautifully lustrous tone comibned with colorful tehcnique...galway..equally as good..his sound is a little more thick however, but he`s very amazing

emmanual pahud is and up and coming riser..amazing sounds
most highly endorsed flutist

william benett, julius baker, jeffrey khaner, peter lukas graf, peter loyd, mimi stillman, etc

have fun!