Flute Choir and Flute Orchestra are combined for Fall Quarter 2025. For rehearsal and concert details, including messages from your conductor, please view the ensemble page for the Combined Flute Ensembles.
Rehearsals will be held on Monday evenings from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Musicians are expected to arrive and be prepared to rehearse 15 minutes prior to start time.
Print your sheet music prior to first rehearsal (using link at top of this page) and bring with you to rehearsal
Arrive 15 minutes prior to the start of rehearsal to ensure you are in your chair and ready to play at the start of rehearsal
Have fun!
ATTENDANCE POLICY FOR LAST REHEARSAL BEFORE THE CONCERT
If a Flute Choir student misses the final Monday rehearsal before a concert, their participation in the upcoming concert will be contingent on a music test. They will be required to submit a video of their performance of excerpts (details provided by the conductor) no later than Wednesday at midnight. The conductor will then make a decision whether the student can participate in the upcoming concert. This decision will be communicated by Thursday.
Flute Choir is an advanced intermediate ensemble for flutes. This BYSO ensemble consists of flutists who were placed at the Sinfonia level after auditioning. Because orchestras need only a few flutes at a time, some of these students may take turns playing in Sinfonia during the year while also practicing and performing in the Flute Choir ensemble. The typical Flute Choir student has had some private instruction and school ensemble experience and is developing solid technical skills and musical understanding.
Flute Choir students develop orchestral playing skills in an enriching and unique chamber group setting, learning to produce rhythmic accuracy and clear dynamic contrasts while maintaining appropriate blend, balance and intonation. Since there are usually only one or two players per part in Flute Choir, these flutists gain valuable independence in playing. Past works performed include Castérède’s Flûtes Joyeuses, Adler’s Madrigals for Six Flutes, and the folksong Scarborough Fair.
Recent Flute Choir Performance
Conductor: Dr. Merrie Siegel Parmley
Dr. Merrie Siegel Parmley holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Rice University. She won the New York Flute Club’s Young Artist Competition at age 19 and since then has performed with the Houston Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Spokane Symphony, and Mozart Society of Philadelphia, among others. Learn more.
It was lovely to meet many of you last night at the Parents’ Meeting. Please be sure to check your email and then check the chart for your flutist’s part assignments and print out all parts for our first rehearsal next Monday.
Also, please check the message below for our music organizer, tuner, contact mic and stand if you haven’t done so already.
We’re going to have an exciting time together and look forward to getting started at our first rehearsal next Monday.
Keep on fluting,
Dr. Merrie
INFO/MATERIALS NEEDED FOR THIS FALL
This Fall, we’ll be essentially preparing 3 concerts: Benaroya (on stage), Lobby Music (before the concert at Benaroya) and our Holiday Caroling Tour. I cannot wait to get started rehearsing all of this exciting music!
Since we will have so many pieces that we’ll need to have at our disposal at all rehearsals, please be sure to purchase the music organizer below, or something similar. Please note that these are different than the conventional plastic sleeves that many students already own: these have plastic to hold the music in place, around the edges only, so musicians can still make markings directly on the music without having to remove it, saving us all valuable rehearsal time.
If you are new to Flute Choir or Flute Orchestra this season: Please note that each flutist will need a tuner and a contact microphone for rehearsal. I have embedded links to some reasonably-priced options, but feel free to purchase anything similar. For both, the cost is @ $39 and can be used over the span of your flutist’s career. (No need to purchase if you already have them.) These tools are vital to our work both during ensemble rehearsal and for individual practice. And while many of us (myself included) rely on a tuner app on our phones, phones are not equipped with the necessary input to connect a contact microphone.
In addition, I highly recommend that you invest in a portable music stand that is sturdier than the wire ones. We spend a considerable amount of rehearsal time wrestling with those when they can’t be either raised or lowered (we play both seated and standing), when the music falls off and/or they’re knocked over. There are many sturdy and portable models available on amazon.com (I did a search for “sturdy, portable music stand”) and they appear to be in the $25-$30 range. Again, this is an investment for throughout your flutist’s career. The link above is an example of a $27 stand where the top part of the stand is solid so that the music won’t fall through, but there are many other ones that are similar.
Music downloads and part assignments will be ready shortly; families will be notified via email. Be sure that your flutist has all of their music printed out and ready to go, as BYSO staff nor I have music at rehearsal. In addition, if you’re assigned to an auxiliary instrument (alto, bass or piccolo) you’ll also be notified by Natalie, our Operations Manager, as to what the next steps will be.
I look forward to an amazing Fall Season of music-making with your talented and amazing flutists!
