Flute Haven 2020 is a six-day program for Native American flute players and leaders of flute circles. Participants improve their flute technique, learn to jam with other instruments, and get a wide range of techniques for leading flute circles and other types of community music gatherings.
Why Come to Flute Haven?
Raise your flute playing to a new level
Jam with other instruments
Develop your performance skills
Learn to lead a flute circle
Go deep into your natural musicality
► You are part of a small group — limited to 24 participants. We have found that this is an ideal size for developing skills and musical growth by all group participants.
► You learn from six dedicated staff members (plus our flutemaker-in-residence) — a very high staff-to-participant ratio.
► You experience a cohesive, all-inclusive program, carefully developed over the last 12 years by the same group of Flute Haven instructors and facilitators (see the Schedule). All the facilitators have extensive experience in music facilitation, and we make it our goal to provide the best program of Native American flute instruction.
► You are playing most of the time. Our motto is: “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture”. Rather than “head-space teaching”, we focus on learning by experiential playing.
► If you are looking to explore therapeutic music, you can tap into our two music therapists on staff, and get hands-on experience in those settings.
► You experience a supportive environment that fosters musical growth without critical judgement. We promote a humanistic philosophy of music education, one that lets players with all levels of experience participate in group music-making. And we teach those techniques so that you can enhance and grow your flute circle.
► You have the unique opportunity to practice leading flute circles, with the support and guidance of experienced staff facilitators.
► Your week is spent in an ideal setting: a dedicated retreat center in the Pennsylvania Hills at a time of the year that promises great weather.
Since the retreat center is completely dedicated to our group, we are free to make maximum use of the center's facilities.
► All our meals are conveniently on-site in a building on the retreat center property. Tea and coffee are provided throughout the day at our Brinton House meeting space. See Dining.
► You come away with a wealth of program materials, at no additional charge. These include the reference flute and virtually all the digital content (videos, audio tracks, and printed material) used by Clint and Vera at flute workshops (see Take-Aways below).
► You learn to play your flute with other instruments — percussion, keyboard, strings — from instructors who specialize in those instruments. Ron
► You can explore playing those other instruments, as well as using your voice. Vocalist Lynn Miller is available throughout the week for vocal coaching, at no additional fee. Instructors Ron Volkman and Ron Kravitz are also available throughout the week for coaching on keyboard and percussion, at no additional fee.
► A wide range of easy-to-play instruments is available to you during the workshops to jam with and explore.
► You have three opportunities to perform: an in-house concert, a therapeutic music “Flutes-in-Service” performance, and an evening concert open to all at a stunning art gallery.
Setting
Our setting is a true haven for musicians: the Pendle Hill Retreat Center …
a gorgeous retreat center in Wallingford, Pennsylvania set in a wooded environment with on-site accomodations, workshop spaces, and dining.
Musicianship and Leadership
While many participants focus on their personal flute skills and musicianship, there is also the opportunity to learn the skills of leading flute circles.
Throughout the week, participants have the opportunity to get training and hands-on experience leading community music gatherings. Training is provided by full-time music facilitators on facilitation forms, ensemble structures, keyboard skills, rhythm skills, conducting, organizing performance events, and humanistic music education. These sessions help participants make their flute circles more fun and musical. After these sessions, participants get to lead actual flute circles each day of the program, with a staff member for support.
The leadership focus at Flute Haven is entirely optional: each participant decides how much emphasis they want to place on developing Leadership skills and developing Musicianship skills. Also, you are free to change your focus at any time throughout the week.
Take-Aways
These items are provided, free, as part of the Flute Haven program:
A 65 GB USB drive ($20 value) with Flute Digital Resources (priceless): an extensive set of videos, audio tracks, fonts, images, and documents in PDF format for your own use and to enhance your flute circle programs. These materials include virtually every digital item used in the 100+ flute workshops led by Clint and Vera over the last 15 years.
A mid-range E minor Reference Flute by Jon Norris ($75 value). We use these flutes in group sessions so that we all share the same pitch and fingering.
A copy of The Darling Conversations — a three-CD set with detailed descriptions of the various forms that we use during the workshop.
These items are included in the program fee for Flute Haven.
Flute Haven is for people of all levels of musical experience — including beginners and experienced players. The amount of time you have played Native flutes is not important — only your desire to explore and expand your musicality.
Video
Here's a video that gives a basic idea of a facilitation form (traveling duets) we use at Flute Haven, and also a song form (solo over drone) that is useful in many situations.
This video was filmed at Flute Haven 2016 as a topic for our series of FluteCast videos:
On-Site Recordings
We have provided on-site recording capabilities at many of our workshops since 2012. Here are excerpts from just a few of the hundreds of recordings made at Flute Haven 2014. All of these tracks are as they were recorded — aside from trimming these samples with fade-in and fade-out, no other processing was done:
1. Karen Rugg — Flute over Nature Sounds
2. Lynn Saltiel over a Michael DeMaria background track
3. T.C. Chin - Solo Flute
4. Randy Motz - Jazz
5. Celine Daly - Flute over Drumming
6. Clint Goss over a Gary Cope background track
7. Heidi Kim Nysaether and Will Rubach - Traditional Chanting
8. Randy Motz
9. Julie Harris - Silk Road flute over Frank Henninger Udu
10. Karen Rugg - Solo Flute
11. T. C. Chin - Traditional Red Cedar Loon Flute
12. Heidi Kim Nysaether
13. Celine Daly and Julie Harris - Duet over Drums
14. Heidi Kim Nysaether and Will Rubach - Melodic Chanting
15. Frank Henninger and Clint Goss - Flute and Piano duet
16. Randy Motz and Ron Kravitz - Flute / Hang duet