The 2012 Virtual Flute Choir Performance Video is Complete!
Please click on the video below to view the performance. Thank you Shaul Ben-Meir for your generosity of time, music, and wisdom and for helping make the first year of the Virtual Flute Choir such a success. Thank you VFC participants for your video submissions. The video and audio quality was excellent and made the final video first-rate. Thank you Skyler Butler for your incredible vision for the way this project would look. It is more stunning than I could have ever imagined. Finally, thank you Kansas State University for the grant that made this project possible. I am thrilled to share this performance with the world! -- Karen McLaughlin Large, VFC Creator
What is the Virtual Flute Choir?
The Virtual Flute Choir is an ensemble of flutists from around the world creating a single large-scale flute choir performance. How is this possible? Flutists submit videos of themselves performing various parts to the same piece and then they are all compiled digitally into one master performance! The piece selected for this year's Virtual Flute Choir is Reinhold Gliere's Russian Sailors' Dance arranged by Shaul Ben-Meir.
Guest Conductor Shaul Ben-Meir
This year's guest conductor is internationally renowned flutist and arranger Shaul Ben-Meir. Mr. Ben-Meir is the founder and music director of the Michigan Flute Orchestra and is widely recognized for his transcriptions and arrangements of symphonic repertoire for the flute orchestra medium. He was formerly a flutist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Ben-Meir was awarded the Silver Medal at the International Wind Competition in Helsinki, Finland and was principal flutist of the Haifa Symphony from 1961 until he was invited to the United States as Visiting Professor of Music at Ithaca College in 1965. Subsequently, he was appointed Artist-in-Residence at the University of Buffalo, participating in modern music research and performance under Lukas Foss. He appeared frequently in solo recitals and masterclasses around the world. His teachers included Geoffrey Gilbert, Joseph Mariano, and Jean-Pierre Rampal.
Mr. Ben-Meir has recorded albums with Golden Crest, Coronet, and Megido Records.
Mr. Ben-Meir was awarded the Silver Medal at the International Wind Competition in Helsinki, Finland and was principal flutist of the Haifa Symphony from 1961 until he was invited to the United States as Visiting Professor of Music at Ithaca College in 1965. Subsequently, he was appointed Artist-in-Residence at the University of Buffalo, participating in modern music research and performance under Lukas Foss. He appeared frequently in solo recitals and masterclasses around the world. His teachers included Geoffrey Gilbert, Joseph Mariano, and Jean-Pierre Rampal.
Mr. Ben-Meir has recorded albums with Golden Crest, Coronet, and Megido Records.
Virtual Flute Choir Creator Dr. Karen McLaughlin Large
Karen McLaughlin Large joined the Kansas State University music faculty in 2011 and teaches applied flute, music theory, flute methods, world music, and directs the KSU flute ensemble. Dr. Large earned her Doctor of Music, Master of Music, Bachelor of Music, and Bachelor of Science degrees as well as graduate certificates in Music Theory Pedagogy and College Teaching from the Florida State University. She studied with Eva Amsler, Stephanie Jutt, Joshua Carter (under Charles Delaney), and Mara Rose Rys.
She is a founding member of Traverso Colore: Baroque Ensemble and performs with them throughout the eastern U.S. She is also a member of the Florida Flute Orchestra, performing on the Sub Contrabass flute in G—one of only a few such instruments in the world. She has performed with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras as a flutist and piccoloist.
Some of her research interests include affective (emotional) responses to music, the role of musical analysis in performance, and baroque flute performance practice. She previously served on the music faculties at the University of Central Florida, the University of Tampa, and Indian River State College teaching various courses including applied flute, music theory, world music, and music literature.
The 2012 Virtual Flute Choir is funded by a research grant (USRG) from Kansas State University.
She is a founding member of Traverso Colore: Baroque Ensemble and performs with them throughout the eastern U.S. She is also a member of the Florida Flute Orchestra, performing on the Sub Contrabass flute in G—one of only a few such instruments in the world. She has performed with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras as a flutist and piccoloist.
Some of her research interests include affective (emotional) responses to music, the role of musical analysis in performance, and baroque flute performance practice. She previously served on the music faculties at the University of Central Florida, the University of Tampa, and Indian River State College teaching various courses including applied flute, music theory, world music, and music literature.
The 2012 Virtual Flute Choir is funded by a research grant (USRG) from Kansas State University.
