Anne McKennon
Flamingo! for flute quartet (2020)
From a distance, the flamingo is tall, elegant, and graceful. Up close, they’re a very unbalanced bird - impossibly thing legs and an outsized beak. I was drawn to their bright, unnatural coloration; composer Anne McKennon was fascinated by their mating dance.
Sometimes called the “flamingo ballet” this dance entails a horde of male flamingos, each stomping and waddling in tandem to attract the attention of the female birds, before engaging in a prolonged and elaborate “dance” en masse. Flamingo! was recorded before its live premiere at the 47th Annual Florida Flute Association Convention in Orlando, Florida in January 2023. It will receive a subsequent performance at the NFA Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, and the 2023 CMS National Convention, also in Orlando. |