Flutist Paul Dunkel interview

Dear Flute lovers,
A no-holds-barred interview with flutist Paul Dunkel (who passed away in Jan 2018). I watched the whole thing, fascinated! Many people talk about studying with Kincaid, Julius Baker, and Sam Baron, but hearing intricate details from someone who studied with all three, is super interesting. (video)



Note: Dunkel mentions the Maquarre Daily Exercises as a personal favourite. They are melodious!

Listen to Paul Dunkel play Debussy: (video)




Can anyone guess which flute was used for the Debussy? I hear Powell. Best guess; as I once played a Powell headjoint for two years. Use the comment button if you want to chime in on this, or any of these recordings. Some of the below are fairly rough, and some astoundingly not what you expect. I guess that's the randomness of youtube's flute fans and their LP collections; thank heavens they share them, though!

Listen to historic flute teachers mentioned in the interview:

William Kincaid (audio from youtube)

Samuel Baron (audio from youtube)

Julius Baker (audio from youtube)

Tom Nyfenger (audio from youtube)

Joseph Mariano (audio from youtube)

Paul's favourite 21st century symphony player:
 Elizabeth Rowe of Boston Symphony - listen to her play Mozart Flute & Harp (excerpt)
Boston Symphony Facebook Video


Finger Exercises; my take on "Finger Twisters":

 I personally don't play "finger twisters" because I have an injured left arm. If any of my students want to see what they look like, I have pages of them, collected from over the years. But I'd like to share my caution that if you tend to be tense in the arms at this point in your playing, then these types of "twisters" may not be great for you. It all depends on what stage of playing you are at.

  If you can already play the Maquarre Daily Exercises smoothly with low, curved fingers, and no key noise, and gentle relaxed arms,  and you do not have the habit of  adding arm and hand/shoulder tension when you play difficult sequences, then sure; check out some "finger twisters" but with care.

In general, the secret of accurate and fast flute fingers is to release excess tension, with every gentle repetition, and to become more and more released in every muscle group, as you discover the best ergonomics of motion. This can often mean actually putting the flute on your shoulder and boldly looking at your fingers to find out which finger is doing what. Which are moving in tandem together? Which are moving in opposite directions? (teeter totter).
When you look at them are they low and curved? Are you building a new sense of ease as you co-ordinate the up-down combinations?

For novices and intermediates, I prefer "birdcalls" of two and three notes taken from the etude or piece, with varying rhythms and freedom to change the rhythm, to finger "drills". With only two notes, I am much more likely to discover which finger is "holding" too hard and learn to let go easily when I am releasing all expectations and improvising throughout the birdcalls or through short-long and long-short and triplet rhythms. So do start there if you're interested.

Meanwhile the above Dunkel interview is about the New York Symphony scene and the super-humanly HIGH LEVEL of flute playing, where you can expect to be asked to sight-read Ballet, Opera or New Music finger twisters for two to four hours without making a mistake, (if, for example you receive a last minute gig substituting in a concert you have never rehearsed, or for which there is only one rehearsal and the music is hugely complex). For that level of super human flute playing, you need to pre-train by pouring through books of all kinds of finger twisters so that no combination of notes ever sounds more difficult than any other combination of notes. Some of those books are by Moyse and have names like: 480 Scales and Arpeggios.
Just thought I'd clarify all this. Comments welcome. :>)

Best,
Jen :>)