PROGRAM NOTES:

Jacarandas is inspired by the beautiful, lavender-blue flowers of the jacaranda (pronounced ha-ka-RAHN-da in Spanish) tree. Through timbral explorations, dialogues between both flutes, and lush piano harmonies, jacarandas aims to paint the imagery of those lavender-blue flowers rustling gently during a sun-kissed, breeze-filled transition into evening. jacarandas was generously commissioned by Marianne Gedigian. 
Michael Frazier (b. 1992, he/him) is a Black and Latino composer who is invested in exploring a musical language that has a connection to a broader history of Black creative artistry. Heavily influenced and inspired by his love of jazz, birdsong, and hip-hop music, Frazier’s compositional style incorporates an expansive harmonic language juxtaposed with structural organization often born in the expression of musical improvisation in various forms. He earned a PhD in music composition from the Eastman School of Music, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio.

7 Modal Flute Duets are arranged from brightest to darkest—from the luminous clarity of Lydian to the unstable mystery of Locrian, and will be in a new version of Laura Lentz’s book, Modal Flute Warmup, forthcoming in December 2025. Each duet is crafted with its mode’s color and character in mind; some incorporate extended techniques, providing further avenues for expressive exploration. Originally composed drones by Rochester composer Sean William Calhoun accompany each duet, supporting flutists in exploring intonation, modal gravitation, and tonal relationships. Op. 75: After Koechlin draws on the warmth of the Lydian mode to evoke the lush harmonies, atmospheric textures, and expressive lyricism characteristic of French composer Charles Koechlin (1867–1950). The first movement of his Sonata for Two Flutes, Op. 75 — with its fluid interplay and color-rich sound world — was a direct inspiration for this piece. In Phantom Shadows, the Phrygian mode stirs with shadows — dark and unpredictable. In the shadows, sound behaves differently: timbres flicker, edges blur, and silence holds secrets.  Montebello (Beautiful mountain) takes its name from Via Montebello, the street in Bologna, Italy, where this piece was written in summer 2025. Inspired by Terry Riley’s minimalist piece In C, this rhythm-driven piece invites players to explore the unstable Locrian mode with grounding and drive. 
Laura Lentz is a flutist, composer, educator, and author of Modal Flute Warmup. The founding flutist and Artistic Director of the new music ensemble fivebyfive, Laura has commissioned and premiered dozens of works. Her latest solo album Serendipity features three new works by Missy Mazzoli, Marc Mellits, and JacobTV. A frequent presenter at festivals and universities, Laura teaches at Nazareth University and serves on the NFA’s New Music Advisory Board. 

Escapade in Blue and Gold is inspired by the ESCAPADE (ESCApe and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission to send to a pair of identical satellites to Mars to measure the structure of the planet’s magnetosphere, how it interacts with solar wind, and how both affect Mars’s atmosphere. ESCAPADE uses two probes — named “Blue” and “Gold” — to take measurements at different points in orbit and measure how effects propagate around the planet. Parallel Through the Void begins with the rapid ascent of leaving Earth’s gravity well, before emerging into space. Much of the movement has the flutes paralleling and imitating each other while stars glimmer in the background. The vigor from the opening returns briefly at the end as the two satellites approach their orbits around Mars. In Magnetosphere in Stereo, the flutes play in canons, with one flute playing the same music the other played, but slightly later. Just as a main benefit of having two satellites is the potential to note when the second measurement deviates from what would have been predicted based on the first, in each section, there is a point at which the canon shifts — the second flute continues to play in canon, but shifts to a different pitch interval (sometimes also a different time interval) relative to the first. 
Sean William Calhoun writes notes, and occasionally rests. His collaborations have included The Fae Nucleus, for harpists Amy Nam and Rosanna Moore; Plasmonic Mirror, for flutist Laura Lentz; and Maelstrom, for the Eastman Saxophone Project. The Peabody Wind Ensemble, conducted by Harlan Parker, premiered his piece Edgedancer. Sean received his D.M.A. from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and David Liptak. He received his M.M. from Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Michael Hersch, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Jason Eckardt, and his B.M. from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, where he studied with Michael Slayton, Michael Rose, and Stan Link. Of the composition teachers with whom he has studied for at least two semesters, almost half were named Michael.

Alexandra Hine is a flutist, pianist, and organist in Rochester, NY.  She is currently serving as Program Chair of the RFA and is the director of the RFA/Hochstein Flute Camp.  Alex is the director of the Teacher Cooperative with Flutistry, is the music director at St. Luke’s Episcopal in Fairport, is a member of the Gold and Ivory Duo, and teaches flute and piano from her home.  She is principal flute of the Finger Lakes Symphony, Center Stage Pops, and Genesee Symphony in their spring season.  www.alexflute.com

Julie Runion, MM (University of South Carolina), BMus (Houghton College), is a collaborative pianist and educator based in Rochester, NY. She currently serves as a choir accompanist for Gates Chili Central Schools, and she is a collaborative pianist at the Hochstein School and the Eastman Community Music School. Julie recently retired from Roberts Wesleyan University after more than 20 years of service, where she taught private piano and collaborative piano lessons, all levels of class piano, and piano pedagogy.

As a collaborative pianist, Julie has worked extensively with both student and professional singers and instrumentalists, with a particular focus on wind and vocal repertoire. She has performed at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, on WXXI’s Live from Hochstein series in Rochester, on the Friends of Music series at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo, and as a member of the Rochester Morning Musicale Society. 

Julie has been on the faculty of the Csehy Summer School of Music in Philadelphia, PA since 2011 and continues to maintain a private piano studio in her home. Her teachers include Joseph Werner, Scott Price, John Kenneth Adams, Dolores Gadevsky, and Sylvia Glickman. Julie and her husband Eric have three children who are all musicians: Jonathan (trumpet, organ), Catharine (violin), and Elizabeth (flute).