Paris in the eighteenth century: baroque music's efflorescence reaches the apogee of beauty and exclusivity, whilst adventurous French wayfarers set their eyes on a distant destination - seven forlorn isles located in the icy straits of the St-Lawrence River in Canada. 250 years on, Sept-Îles or Seven Isles is to this day the name of flautist Annie Laflamme's birthplace. Thanks to her Québécoise upbringing, Annie Laflamme feels as comfortable with the French language of the past as she does in her capacity as musician with the musical language of the Old World. After graduating on the modern flute in Montréal, it was Vienna, an outstanding musical centre, which attracted her attention and where she first encountered the New World of historically informed performance. She completed her studies in this discipline at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
Annie Laflamme, specialist for historically informed performance on the baroque, classical and romantic flutes, now lives in Germany. She performs as solo flute with renowned ensembles such as Les Musiciens du Louvre (M. Minkowski), Concentus Musicus Wien (S. Gottfried), Musicaeterna/Utopia (T. Currentzis), Concerto Köln , Oh! Orkiestra (M. Pastuszka) and Collegium 1704 (V. Luks). Her tours as soloist, chamber-musician and orchestra player, as well as her dedicated pedagogic work brought her throughout Europe, Canada, South America, the Middle East, Asia, Russia and India. Numerous recordings on CD and for the radio bear witness to her artistic prowess.
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The first thing you do when you pick up your traverso to start the practice day, and why?
The first thing I do when I pick up my traverso is to connect to my body - the overall posture, the head, the limbs, the fingers and feet – and bring my mind to here and now. Then I take a deep, conscious breath and start with long tones, always being present and focused, making my traverso resonate at his maximum finding and respecting the particularity and personality of each note.
Any recurring piece to play every day, and why?​
I find Bach’s music purifying and restorative; I like to play pieces from his sacred music and my choice will be influence by the mood I am in or what I want to work on.
The recurring ones may be the aria ‘Aus Liebe’ from Mattheus Passion for sound and musicality, ‘Ich Folge Dir’ from Johannes Passion, to practice fork fingerings, or ‘Benedictus’ from B minor Mass, for breath training and intonation.
Do you have a daily routine?​
I see music practice as a part of an overall management plan for the day, that somehow blends and should be balanced with the other daily activities. Depending on this general plan, and possibly on short term engagements, I try to define the right time and space for daily practice, which may change from one day to the other.
What kind of goals do you set for your practice?​
In general, I do not set specific expectations but try to be efficient and improve on all levels of my playing: sound, flexibility, intonation, articulation, finger technique as well as interpretation and mind set. I might consider short term goals, such as preparing specific repertoire for coming projects, or I might work on longer term goals, such as keeping ‘fit’ on different flutes or getting familiar with new pieces.
Do you do any systematic warm-up?
I always do warm-up, working a lot on sound, resonance and flexibility, body awareness and balance, so I might resort to do some yoga and breathing exercises with the instrument. I always take time to warm up, varying from day to day between playing long tones, “sons filés” with 2, 3 or 4 notes, crescendo, diminuendo, echo, intervals in different dynamics, etc.
If I need to change flute model or type, I will take particular care for the embouchure, the volume and speed of air. 
Do you have a specific structure for warm-up and practice sessions?
My warm-up structure will depend on the tasks at hand but will always include sound exercises (usually accompanied with the tuner machine). To warm-up I do long tones, starting from D’’ and going all the way down and up covering the whole tessitura of the flute. I practice intervals in all registers, increasingly wider to get precise beginning of notes and clear articulations in diverse dynamics. Then comes the technical part of my practice with trills, difficult passages, studies and then the repertoire I need to practice for current or coming projects.
Any distinctive characteristics of baroque flute daily practice vs. modern flute or other instruments?​
I switch regularly between many different types of flutes, from the renaissance to the modern, and the practice is distinctive for each of them.
If you play baroque flute in chamber music with continuo or in an orchestra, doubling the strings or the oboes, you will notice that the flute is most of the time too soft! The repertoire is moving mainly in the first two octaves, and you need to develop a rich and full sound with great nuances and colours in the different tonalities as well as clear articulations to be as audible as possible.
On the classical and romantic flute, you will need to develop the 3rd octave, so it is necessary to practice high notes in different dynamics, control the intonation and train the virtuosity to get used to the tricky keys which have been progressively added to the flute at the end of the 18th century. There are lots of great studies and methods for this. (Tulou, Hugot, Wunderlich, Fürstenau, Vanderhagen, etc.).
​On the modern flute I would try to maximize the homogeneity throughout the three registers, with sound exercises (Moyse “Tone development” for example) but also technic exercises for the flexibility and virtuosity of the fingers (scales, thirds, arpeggios, chromatic scales) (Daily exercises from Taffanel, Moyse, Reichert, etc.).
What are the key elements and unmissable points of daily practice?
Focus and awareness are the key elements for any effective practice session. It may be difficult, but we should leave out the distractions and stress of our daily life to maximize the concentration on music playing in the here and now. It helps to have a quiet practice room where you are not disturbed.
Another key is to accept that we are human being doing mistakes! Ideally, we try not to repeat them! Be patient and enjoy playing!
It is also important to take breaks at strategic points (every no more than 45 to 60 minutes) to avoid body and mind fatigue.
How long and distributed should warm-up and practice be?
Warm-up should be as long as wanted or needed! It is pretty personal and often a question of time availability; but I would say ideally between 15 to 30 minutes. You should keep an hour to two for practicing the repertoire you have chosen and fixing specific technical issues.
Any  specific tip to address difficult technical passages during daily practice?
First, we need to identify the problem: is it the sound, the lack of air, the fingers, the tongue? Whatever that is, it may be a good practice to play it slowly with a metronome and gradually increase the tempo. You can ‘trick’ your brain by:
-varying the rhythm (play in three instead of in two for example, play accent alternatively on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sixteen note of a group instead of on the 1st one; or add dotted rhythm);
-change the articulations (two slured-two detached, then the opposite, one detached-one slurred-one detached, etc.).
Playing by memory and practicing mentally (with and without instrument) are also helpful to improve a difficult technical passage. At last, be sure to understand the phrasing and bring out the musical line.
Are there any tools that are particularly useful for practicing?
I find many of them very useful: a metronome, a tuner, a mirror, occasionally a sound recorder, and even an unmissable pencil! I use the mirror to check the size of my embouchure for example and if my position is fine.
Any other general advice, suggestion, tip?
It is advisable to practice in different acoustic environments, temperature, humidity and light conditions to be prepared for all eventualities.
It is good to have an “emergency kit” always handy, which may include thread for tenons, wax compound, oil, glue or nail polish for cracks, a rubber band for accidents with the keys and a little screwdriver.
How do you advise your students as far as structuring their daily practice?
This may be very subjective, as the strengths and weaknesses are very diverse from one student to the other one. I tend to differentiate my advice, based on this fact. One will be encouraged to spend more time on technical issues, with dedicated exercises, the other one on tuning diminuendos, on ornaments, on musical interpretation, etc. I recommend dividing the daily practice in few blocks if possible so there is time to “digest” and integrate the different inputs in-between.
Do you suggest or teach a warm-up routine?​
Not necessarily, to do a warm-up is essential but there are many very good ways of doing it and it is also nice to vary it from day to day. The perseverance and regularity in practicing and warming up is the crucial aspect.
Besides all the sound exercises, I suggest playing préludes from Hotteterre, Devienne, Boismortier, Montéclair, etc. in different tonalities, as well as improvising your own ones. Eventually, practice composing little cadenzas (The “Ornamentik der Musik in der Barock” from M. Zimmermann is a nice reference to learn about it!) And sightread lots of music to get quick reflexes in playing! 
Are there any specific pieces particularly beneficial to be played regularly in daily practice?
I usually let my students do their own exploration and choices of pieces to study, as I believe this increases their motivation. I consider baroque French music with all subtleties, “finesses” and ornaments as being the fundament of traverso playing and warmly recommend working on it on a regular basis.  And, of course, the wonderful and challenging flute sonatas from J.S. Bach should be practiced regularly.