18th annual Flute Day set Feb. 22 in Peru

The 18th annual Flute Day is scheduled 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Congregational Church of Peru, 1431 Fourth St.

The all-day interactive workshop is open to flutists of all ages and ability levels with participants working directly with Bradley University flute professor, Kyle Dzapo; Gerald Carey, flute professor emeritus, Western Illinois University; and Georgia based flutist/composer Nicole Chamberlain.

Registration is available by calling Music Suite 408 815-223-4408 or online at www.408fineartsfactory.com. The event is sponsored by Music Suite 408, the Illinois Valley Flute Ensemble, Powell Flutes, Boston and Miller Group Charitable Trust with support from North Central Illinois ARTworks. Participants will present a concert of Nicole Chamberlain’s music at 5 p.m., open to the public. Tickets at the door are $10 for adults and $5 for students kindergarten through college with ID.

Dzapo is an award-winning professor and scholar who teaches flute students and music history classes in the Department of Music at Bradley University. Dzapo has performed solo recitals in London, Denmark, South Korea, France and at Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium as well as on live broadcasts for WFMT’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series and Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Sunday Afternoon Live.” Her solo CD, “Joachim Andersen: Etudes and Salon Music," with pianist A. Matthew Mazzoni, is published by Naxos International.

Dzapo has served as principal flutist of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra for 20 years and is the author of “Notes for Flutists: A Guide to the Repertoire,” the inaugural volume in the Oxford University Press “Notes for Performers” series for which she serves as series editor. Recognized as the leading authority on Danish flutist, composer and conductor Joachim Andersen has published about his life and music including articles for the journals of the American, British, Dutch, Finnish, French, German and Japanese flute associations and for the “Lexikon der Flöte.” She also collaborates with Musikverlag Zimmermann, one of Andersen’s original publishers, now affiliated with Schott, to prepare new editions of Andersen’s music for “The Kyle Dzapo Series.” Her new book, “Joachim Andersen: Flutist, Conductor, and Composer of More than the Etudes” with co-authors András Adorján and William Wilsen, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2025. She holds a masters of music degree with distinction in performance from New England Conservatory and a bachelor’s of music education degree with high distinction from the University of Michigan.

Carey is mostly retired, and lives in Glen Ellyn. Before retirement he was principal flute of the Quad City for 29 years. He has also been principal flute of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the New Orleans Summer Pops Orchestra, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, the Eastman Symphonic Wind Ensemble (under the direction of Frederick Fennell) and the Eastman Philharmonia (under the direction of Howard Hanson). He has also played in the Rochester Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Rochester Civic Orchestra, the New Orleans Opera House Orchestra, the American School Woodwind Quintet (Fountainebleau, France with Nadia Boulanger) and has performed with the St. Louis Symphony and the New Orleans Philharmonic. He retired from Western Illinois University where he was professor of flute and a founding member of the Camerata Woodwind Quintet.

Since he is only “mostly” retired, he still teaches Summer Flute Camps in Peru; the Westminster Choir College Conservatory in Princeton, New Jersey, and teaches/coaches/conducts various students and groups in the Chicago area. Carey has also been a faculty member of the Eastman School of Music, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Illinois and DePaul University. He has bachelor’s of music and master’s of music degrees from the Eastman School of Music (a student of Joseph Mariano) and completed his D.M.A. studies (ABD) at the University of Illinois. Grants and awards received include the Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts from the University of Illinois, the Eastman School Graduate Scholarship and the Eastman School’s Performer’s Certificate. He has presented numerous concerts, recitals and masterclasses from coast to coast in the United States and abroad.

Composer and flutist Nicole Chamberlain (b. 1977) has a varied career in the arts, acquiring simultaneous bachelors' degrees in music composition and digital media at the University of Georgia. Her original compositions are influenced by storytelling and visual imagery from her former day job as a web animator and designer. Chamberlain’s music “heavily utilizes extended techniques [that] play into the theme or story of each piece to sonically enhance its meaning” (The Flute View).

“Being a virtuoso flautist herself has informed her ability to write for the instrument with thrilling facility and endearing charm,” according to Gramophone Magazine. As a Powell Flutes Artist, Chamberlain has been enabled in this endeavor to perform her music to a wide audience and wouldn’t trade in her Powell Conservatory 9K Aurumite Flute and a Powell Handmade Custom Grenadilla Piccolo for the world.

Chamberlain balances her time composing, teaching students, performing and avoiding graphic design work as much as possible. She lives in Doraville with her husband, guitarist and composer Brian Chamberlain. The Chamberlains have their own independent music publishing company, Spotted Rocket Publishing and two dogs who long to be social media influencers. Catch Chamberlain on any of the many social media platforms where she spends an abhorrent amount of time. For more information visit her website at www.nikkinotes.com.