Two fairy queens

Emily Beynon

Ever since I started blowing in this sometimes metallic, sometimes wooden tube I have been searching for a voice to follow, a piper that would take my rats and children away. My first great inspiration was Angela Campbell, an English violonist I met some twenty years ago on a Greek island, Alonissos, where she was living on her own in a tiny beautiful house of the old village perched over the Egean sea. I fell in love with her and came back over and over again to see her and play music. She encouraged me to pick up the flute and I started to learn and play without being able to read a single note. We played for years, eventually with our small daughter who was on a tiny fiddle enjoying the whole basking experience. A few years ago, our marriage broke up and still think of her as one of the most important people in my life. I trully thank her for who she is and what she has done. Angela is a music master, she is the real thing. Her phrasing is out of this world and her golden tone, a sound she gets even on rough fiddles, an expression of a boundless love. She was the first person to open my ears and heart to true music.

I must confess, there is another lady I follow secretly for she is not even my friend ( although she was kind enough to reply a few emails and peep on this blog). She is trully the most amazing flutist I have ever listened to. Her name? Emily, Emily Beynon, as British as anything and so open-minded with a tone, a sound, a phrasing that are exceptional. She is young and yet extremely expressive. The lanscape of her playing is so broad. He tone so free. She sometimes reminds me of the depth of Hilary Hahn on the violin, so young and yet a striking understanding of what music is about. If you can, listen to her recording of French flute music or put your hand on the Japanese release of "Fantaisie" where what she plays is out of this world ( her interpretation of Faure's fantaisie, the charming pieces of C. Koechlin, her reading of Ravel...). If you would like to know more about her, you may visit her website: http://www.emilybeynon.com/ , buy her dics or even better, rush to her next concert. My rats and children have deserted me. The king of the pipers is... a queen.