It was a pleasure playing Syrinx surrounded by these beautiful bouquets I received for my birthday. As I played, I looked at individual flowers and felt I was responding to the profusion of colors and textures.
“Syrinx” at the Brandywine River Museum
I performed Syrinx after viewing the spectacular Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect exhibit in preparation for Dolce Suono Trio’s performance at the Brandywine River Museum on September 9. Here I was playing on the bank of the Brandywine River outside the museum.
Our program will include music by Dvořák, Debussy, Sibelius, Gaubert, Bernstein, Andrea Clearfield, and Jennifer Higdon’s American Canvas for Flute, Cello, and Piano, a DSE-commissioned work with each of three movements devoted to a great American painter: O’Keeffe, Pollock, and Wyeth.
Eclipse “Syrinx” for Debussy’s Birthday
For Debussy’s birthday today, August 22, I performed Syrinx outside during the solar eclipse yesterday. In Philadelphia the eclipse was partial, and while I played Syrinx the moon passed in front of the sun, darkening the mid-afternoon. As I played the music of Debussy during this awe-inspiring phenomenon I thought of tuning myself to the music of the spheres.
This will be a particularly rich season of Debussy, as our Dolce Suono Ensemble will be marking the centennial of his death with a festival of performances in March and April 2018.
New concert videos are live!
Listen again to some of Mimi’s performances, or catch them for the first time! Simply click on the links to go to YouTube, and subscribe to the channels to get updates when new videos appear.
Stillman/Abramovic duo in recital
Widor, Suite for Flute and Piano
Dvorak, Two Songs (arr. Stillman)
Confrey, Dizzy Fingers (arr. Bill Holcombe)
Dolce Suono Trio
Jennifer Higdon, American Canvas, excerpt from “Wyeth” movement
“Syrinx” for Debussy’s Birthday
Today is the 154th birthday of Claude Debussy, and I wish him a bon anniversaire with a special edition of Syrinx Journey. I enlisted the Marquis de Lafayette to join me in the felicitation as I performed Syrinx at the statue of Lafayette by Raoul Josset at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This rendition of Syrinx unites two projects I am passionate about: “Syrinx Journey” and “Music in the Second Capital,” which my Dolce Suono Ensemble will debut this season. “Music in the Second Capital” is an exploration of musical life in late colonial and early republic Philadelphia, when it was the second capital of the United States and the cultural center of the new nation. We will perform music that the Founding Fathers listened to and in some cases played or composed.
The Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat and military officer, supported the cause of American independence and played a critical role in the birth of the United States. He fought heroically as a general in the American army and was a close friend of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. Lafayette returned to France, where he applied his experience in America to his service during the French Revolution and throughout his illustrious life, earning the nickname “Hero of Two Worlds.”
Please stay tuned for more of my Syrinx Journey entries, and join Dolce Suono Ensemble throughout our season!
Steven Stucky In Memoriam
Below you can read DSE Artistic Director, Mimi Stillman’s article in Flutist Quarterly in memoriam Steven Stucky, DSE commissioned composer. This year’s Dolce Suono Ensemble Young Composers Competition is held in memory of Steven Stucky.
Recent Press
Mimi’s recording “Freedom” with Charles Abramovic, piano and premieres by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, David Finko, and Richard Danielpour (with Yumi Kendall, cello, in the Danielpour) continues to receive fantastic reviews.
Among the recent accolades for the album and Dolce Suono Ensemble:
- Interview and Review of “Freedom” and Dolce Suono Ensemble in the Huffington Post by Lew Whittington
“Stillman and Abramovic, the core players of DSE, have been performing together for 14 years, their stellar artistic clarity and chemistry is palpable onstage and is vividly captured on their recent recording “Freedom” (recorded in Gould Hall) a collection of flute and piano pieces.”
- “Freedom” is selected as one of Top 5 New Classical CDs for Spring for WRTI Radio by Mark Pinto
- Dolce Suono Ensemble’s “The Americas Project / Musica en tus Manos” review in The Philadelphia Inquirer by David Patrick Stearns
“So much of this music simply invites you to enjoy life. But that enjoyment starts with the musicians, who were in the right zone.”
New videos posted
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More Indiana tour photos, March 2016
With my wonderful friends from Yamaha at Music for All in Indianapolis. Fun times!
John Wittmann
Jennifer Vierling and Brian Petterson
Jalissa Gascho and Yamaha trumpet artist Joe Burgstaller
Mimi’s Indiana tour, March 2016
Photos from Mimi’s tour in Indiana. Recital and masterclass at Indiana State University. With Martha Krasnican, piano, Joyce Wilson, flute professor, and Daniel Powers, composer
Photos from the Music for All Festival, presented by Yamaha, in Indianapolis, where Mimi taught flute masterclasses and chamber music coaching.
