by Maggie Stapleton

Seattle’s rich and vibrant flute community would not be nearly such without the presence of influence of Paul Taub.  He is a Professor of Music at Cornish College of the Arts and founding member of the Seattle Chamber Players, two organizations constantly pushing the envelope of contemporary music through innovative performance venues and adventurous repertoire.  I’m thinking most recently of the Icebreaker VII Festival at On the Boards in Seattle.  (Listen if you haven’t heard these excerpts!)

Paul has performed and recorded American and world premieres by Robert Aitken, John Cage, George Crumb, Janice Giteck, Sofia Gubaidulina, Wayne Horvitz, Ned Rorem, Toru Takemitsu, Reza Vali, and Peteris Vasks  – composers you’ll likely hear on any given day here on Second Inversion!  In 2011, Paul released Edge, a collection of “Flute Music from the Periphrey of Europe” on the Present Sounds label here in Seattle.  Chamber music by Armenian Artur Avanesov, Latvian Peteris Vasks, Georgian Giya Kancheli, Azerbaijani Elmir Mirzoev, and Russian Sergei Slonimsky are represented by some of Seattle’s finest musicians.

Giya Kancheli’s Ninna Nanna Per Anna was commissioned by the National Flute Association in recognition of Paul Taub’s multiyear Board of Directors and New Music Advisory committee roles. Dr. Elena Dubinets writes, “This beautiful and uncannily slow lullaby uncovers itself through a very gradual blinking of major and minor keys in the pastel tones of nostalgia and half-forgotten memories.”

Please enjoy this entire track performed by flutist Paul Taub and many amazing collaborative musicians from the Seattle Area. (Paul Taub, flute; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Julie Whitton, viola; David Sabee, cello)