The Mat-Su Flute Choir Presents "Night Music"  

The Mat-Su Flute Choir Presents "Night Music"  
 
Contributed by Sara Bowen
 

The Mat-Su Flute Choir and friends return to the Wasilla Public Library to share music with the community with their free chamber music concert. The “Night Music” concert takes place at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, August 16th, at the Wasilla Public Library. Admission is free.  

The Flute Choir will tour through a variety of music genres, from a Baroque concerto by Joseph Boden de Boismorteir to the modern Nightscapes by Grant Horsley. Also performing in this concert are the exceptional string instrumentalists of the Mat-Su Chamber Players.  

The concert will open with an arrangement of Mozart’s Queen of the Night Aria, featuring Lara Foldenauer on solo piccolo. The bright piccolo sings atop the choir’s accompaniment, sometimes holding melodic conversations with Flute 1. Supporting underneath are the alto flutes and cello. In absence of a bass flute, Nanette Lundelle plays cello in most of the pieces, effectively grounding the atmospherically high voices of the flutes.  

Mid concert, the Flute Choir breaks for the Mat-Su Chamber Players to take center stage. They will play a selection of Mozart string quartet movements and Arthur Foote’s Night Piece, featuring flute and string quartet. Night Piece is an emotional and temperamental number, at times hopeful, at times brooding in despair.  

The Flute Choir returns with another collection of songs, ending with a brilliant arrangement of Fly Me to the Moon by Igor Penido. This arrangement synthesizes Bart Howard’s Jazz classic with melodies from La La Land (Justin Hurwitz), resulting in a funky and playful piece. It’s pure fun that ends another season of summer fluting.  

This is the third summer concert of the Mat-Su Flute Choir, started in 2023 by the flute section of the Mat-Su Concert Band. While the concert band is on hiatus for summer break, the flutes gather for the camaraderie and joy of sharing music together.  Each summer culminates in bringing music to the library with a free concert.