Born in Southern France, I live in Belgium and teach historical flutes at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel and Conservatorium van Amsterdam. I started playing the traverso through my traditional Irish flute practice and share my time between my concerts, my teaching, and my two beautiful girls. After having recorded two solo albums (Beethoven/ Doppler/Kuhlau and Corelli/Quentin), I'm about to release next year Mozart’s flute Concerti with a nocte temporis and a transcription of the Goldberg Variations with my quartet Nevermind.
Anna on Facebook Nevermind website a nocte temporis website |
The first thing you do when you pick up your traverso to start the practice day, and why?
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My first thought when I start is to find a way to feel at home, as this helps reduce any stress or tension I might have. I focus on relaxing activities, which allows me to ease into my practice. I usually begin with some improvisation on my flute, focusing on preludes that come to me in the moment. This freeform approach allows me to connect deeply with the music and my instrument, going back and forth and vibrating together, making it a personal and fulfilling experience. Home is being back to the unique sound that comes from this close relationship with the flute, where I don’t have to push and the instrument doesn’t need to tell me anymore where to go.
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Any recurring piece to play every day, and why?
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Now it’s mostly improvisation. In my earlier days I used Quantz’s Solfeggi a lot to practice articulation, and Brunettes with words by various composers, like Monteclair or Hotteterre, to take care of phrasing and expressiveness. With the latter, in particular, I first say the words out loud, which helps me understand how to reproduce that articulation in my playing. This process has been incredibly enlightening, revealing how deeply language can inform musical expression.
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Do you have a daily routine?
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Practice planning depends on current priorities and the way I feel. I am very often having many things at the same time, so I'm trying to be very efficient. After many years of practicing, I know that if your body is aching, you can't do much. If I feel stiff, I'll do just 5 minutes of preluding and then some yoga for general body relaxation and comfort, and to help breathing in the proper way.
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What kind of goals do you set for your practice?
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This again depends on what I have to work on. If there is like a concerto or something where I know some bars are extremely difficult and tricky, I need first to clean it to be sure that technically it's going to be fine. So we're really focused on trying this passage very, very slowly.
One of the most important things in my practice is what I call active listening. Our practice cannot be based on chance. The sound, the intonation, the clarity of articulation must not depend on “let's see how I feel today”. If, before playing, I have a precise idea of the quality of the sound I'm looking for, the clarity of articulation and the pitch of my note, then there's no reason why, when I play, it shouldn't sound the way I want it to. |
Do you do any systematic warm-up?
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Preluding is an essential part of my daily routine on the baroque flute, typically for the first 15-20 minutes, and I embrace it as a free and creative process. I allow myself to play whatever comes to mind, most of the times with my eyes closed, the whole range from the low to the high register, without worrying about specific styles or structures. This improvisation is crucial for me because if I were reading a specific piece, I'd already be thinking too far ahead, focusing on phrasing and interpretation, which can feel like too much information at that moment.
Instead, I prefer to focus on what I feel in the moment. For instance, I might think, “Let’s make this high D really sparkle, warm and sunny.” By keeping it loose and intuitive, I stay focused on exploring the flute’s tone directly. |
Any distinctive characteristics of baroque flute daily practice vs. modern flute or other instruments?
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I love playing modern flute, I still play it, but I never have this feeling of a special relationship between me and the instrument. I always found that I had to reach a deeper understanding of the instrument with a wooden flute and specifically with the traverso. This instrument offers a much restricted framework compared to the modern flute and by understanding better where its limits are, one can really reach the magic of 'less is more'. I find always very interesting to change flutes and having to adapt to many different models. It's a never ending challenge to find the right tone between the modern flute, the traverso or the Irish flute, and it might take some time but will give your playing a great flexibility.
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What are the key elements and unmissable points of daily practice?
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“Mens sana in corpore sano”. It is essential to trust the body sensations and it will be very difficult to reach the playing we're aiming to with a tensed body. I always find the most beautiful tone while completely relaxed.
When starting out on the traverso from the modern flute, I recommend the use of sons filés pushed to the limit in order to feel the framework of the traverso. I spend a lot of time trying to slur perfectly between two notes. What happens between two notes is often more meaningful than the notes themselves. The last thing I make sure to add to my daily practice is the precision of the tonguing. It helps control the tone and I know my jaw is always relaxed downwards if the point of my tongue is in the right place. |
How long and distributed should warm-up and practice be?
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I have no specific rule for this, as it depends on the available time! If I'm not in a rush I'll spend more time warming up in a very slow way, taking time to find the best tone possible while looking for a tension-free body. I find also always beneficial to change flute during the practice, in order to force my brain to adapt quickly to a different instrument.
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Any specific tip to address difficult technical passages during daily practice?
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What helps me a lot is to really say the name of the notes when I play a really tricky passage: if I'm not able to say in my head while playing, I know that it can go OK, but it can also collapse when I have a bit of stress. But if I do say every note, it forces me to really be in the moment.
I also take the flute down sometimes, put the headjoint on my shoulder and look at my fingers while singing the tricky passage. It's often very useful in order to see which finger is a bit lazy. Another tip consists in reversing short passages several times until they're clean in both ways. And finally, when having a repeated passage I shift the emphasis in my head, leaning on one particular note in order to “trick” the brain. |
Are there any tools that are particularly useful for practicing?
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I like to use the metronome, especially when practicing articulations. It gives a necessary objectivity to the practice and helps noticing the improvement.
As for students having difficulties in finding the right intonation, I recommend using drone fixed notes while playing intervals of 3rd, 4th and 5th. |
Any other general advice, suggestion, tip?
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As far as choosing a flute, I believe you have to try a few ones and find the one that is really made for you, your own magic wand. That’s the only way you can find the right instrument, that you can be one with and make no effort to play.
One must be careful not to get any tension when playing. Some keyed-flutes for instance can bring tensions in the left hand if the long f key is placed a bit too far. |
How do you advise your students as far as structuring their daily practice?
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I always propose my students to start with an improvised dialogue prelude and really encourage them to do it in their own practice. One can find inspiration in Hotteterre's L'Art de préluder or Delusse's preludes from L'Art de la flûte traversière if needed.
As explained earlier, the best way to open the flute and play as evenly as possible despite weak notes and strong ones is to practice pieces with several flats or sharps. I always ask my students to bring at least one piece with a tricky tonality. |
Do you suggest or teach a warm-up routine?
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I like to do a very simple warm up by using a pivot note in the key I'm going to play after and by slurring, I try to find an even sound between strong and weak notes and I don't go to the next note until I'm happy with the color. This is to be played with a relaxed body, like a “mantra”.
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Are there any specific pieces particularly beneficial to be played regularly in daily practice?
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Any piece with tricky tonalities! Nothing better to open the sound. It also helps finding a great agility in playing fork fingerings.
As for ornamentation, I recommend pieces ornamented by the composers themselves in order to get used to different styles of ornamentation such as the Methodical Sonatas by Telemann, Corelli's Sonatas op. 5 with his own embellishments published in Amsterdam, and as Hotteterre suggests in order to get used to French ornamentation, reading lots and lots of early French music. |