By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
When flutist Terri Sanchez steps forward to solo the BG Philharmonia on Sunday afternoon, it will be “kind of an introduction,” she said.
Sanchez joined the BGSU College of Musical Arts faculty last year as professor of flute.
Not that she’s been a stranger to the local stage – she’s performed on a number of occasions, including a few weeks ago at the Toledo Museum of Art during a faculty recital.
She said she’s been “struck by just how many concerts and events happen in any given week, and how well attended they are . …I have not gone to one faculty recital where I haven’t been absolutely inspired. Every one of my colleagues is an absolutely incredible player.”
They set a high bar. “The work ethic here is just out of this world. So many of us are working so many hours a day giving blood, sweat and tears,” she said. To feel “ valued and respected by my colleagues, it makes it easier to do.”
Sanchez will perform Jacques Ibert’s Concerto for Flute with the Philharmonia Sunday, Nov. 20 at 3 p.m. in Kobacker Hall on the BGSU campus. Also, on the program will be two pieces by Anton Dvorak – Slavonic Dance No. 1 conducted by graduate student Ezra Calvino and Symphony No. 9 “From the New World.”
Sanchez said the selection of the Ibert concerto was a collaborative decision between herself and Emily Freeman Brown, the Philharmonia’s music director.
It’s a favorite piece among flutists, Sanchez said. Because of a strong tradition of music for flute connected to the Paris Conservatory, flutists have an affection for French music, and Ibert, who taught at the conservatory, is a favorite composer.
The first and third movements, she said, “are full of fireworks and sparkles.”
The second movement, in contrast, “ is especially poignant with a beautiful long melody with very rich lines.”
Sanchez has performed the concerto before with a pianist. That allowed a certain flexibility. “When you play with the orchestra the conductor is in charge of making sure we’re all operating as one unit,” she said.
“It’s quite an extravagant thing to have that many musicians playing together.”
Growing up in the area around Fort Worth, Texas, Sanchez started playing flute in middle school. She wanted to play saxophone, but she couldn’t get a good sound from the instrument. The music teacher and her mother convinced her to try flute. She’s grateful they did.
“I’ll never forget that day when I went home with my brand-new flute,” she said. “I was told not to open it until our first class, but I did any way and I literally said out loud ‘you know I think we’re going to be spending a lot of time together.’ I had a flash of intuition about my future.”
Before saxophone, she noted, she had wanted to be a singer. She continued to sing in choirs through high school. “But I never found my voice.”
She also aspired at one point to be a lawyer and was active and successful on the debate team.
But in the end the verdict was she wanted to pursue flute performance.
“I had some very meaningful musical experiences in my junior year in high school,” Sanchez said. She recalls “playing in a summer music camp and thinking ‘this music is so beautiful; I could die happy right now.’ I just knew I wanted a life with music around me all the time.”
Her first stop in her college career was the University of Colorado Boulder. Then she returned to Texas. She took three years off before starting her graduate studies at Southern Methodist University. During that period, she was active as a teacher with 75-80 students a week. She had started teaching at 18.
After Southern Methodist, she did her doctoral work at the University of North Texas. She started her college teaching as a senior lecturer for eight years at the University of Texas Arlington.
The BGSU position opened when a former colleague Conor Nelson left to take another position.
BGSU’s renown as a center for new music, including its doctoral program in contemporary music, was a major drawing card.
“Our doctoral cohort, the DMA musicians, are artistic and professional and some of the best musicians I’ve heard. And they’re still students here. It’s very inspiring to have students of that caliber.”
They work on so many new compositions, she said, that “ I feel like I’m getting a fourth degree in contemporary music.”
The students in the master’s program are “also at the top of their game.” There are 27 student flutists in the college. Sanchez has three graduate assistants to help with the load.
The annual New Music Festival also raises the ante. “Getting to hear all these works by living composers is inspiring,” she said. “The creativity is off the charts.”
She’s even started composing. The graduate flute quartet played her piece “The Winds of Bowling Green,” inspired by BG’s blustery winter weather, at the New Music Festival in October.
For students, there are so many chamber music opportunities, she sometimes cautions them not to over commit themselves.
Sanchez will solo again with a large ensemble on Feb. 24 when the BGSU Wind Symphony performs indigenous composer Will Linthicum-Blackhorse’s “Mnicakmun (The Sounds of Water) for Flute and Wind Symphony.”
A specialized water instrument, Sanchez said, will have to be built for the performance. “That’s the kind of thing we do here at BGSU.”
