A big thank you to Beth Hall from
Wood Wind Studios for sharing her
expertise and time with us.
Can you please tell me a little about yourself
and your musical background?
I’ve always been a musician. I asked my parents
to give me a piano when I could hardly reach the
keys and I took up flute a few years later. My first
band director loves to tell the story that I could
barely produce a sound on flute for quite some
time, but I persevered and was judged first in allstate competition for three consecutive years in
high school.
I’m a Mobile, Alabama girl, but traveled north
for college and earned bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in music from the University of Vermont
and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. At
UMass, I was awarded a graduate assistantship
to direct the university bands. I happened to be
conducting ensembles at a time when a number
of military veterans were entering the university
and it was intimidating to me to conduct a lot of
tough Marines. I discovered that nobody could be
10
more polite and respectful than a U.S. Marine!
I eventually moved home and taught flute at the
University of Mobile. I currently play principal flute
and am soloist with the Magnolia Chamber Orchestra and the Baldwin Pops. I’m very fortunate
to play for a conductor in the Pops who is also
a composer; he wrote a flute piece for me which
I premiered several years ago. I’m interested in
woodwind quintet literature and founded an ensemble to perform this music.
It would be easy to say that I never imagined
this life, but my life is pretty much exactly what
I imagined as a child. When I was 5 years old,
I attached an envelope to the back of a picture
hanging over my bed. I thought that the center of
the musical universe must be Vienna, Austria and
I dropped pennies into the envelope as a start to
my Vienna travel fund. I never made it to Austria,
but I did perform as a soloist with an ensemble on
tour through other European countries. Music will
take you places.