Steppin' Out

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Photograph by Jim Fidelibus/Flute Bay Area

Sir James Galway, Ai Goldsmith, Isabelle Chapuis Starr and Lady Jeanne Galway share a moment at a July master class taught by the Galways.

Local flutists attend Galway master class

By Heather Zimmerman

Master classes are advanced workshops, generally in one of the performing arts, which are presented in front of an audience and taught by a respected artist. Certainly, the term "master class" couldn't be more appropriate than when legendary flute player Sir James Galway is the teacher.

In mid-July, San Jose-based flutist Ai Goldsmith was one of five musicians who took part in a master class with Galway at Napa's COPIA center. The class, organized by Flute Bay Area, also featured master flutist Lady Jeanne Galway teaching a section for teen students. Goldsmith and the other participants submitted audition tapes and were chosen by the Galways.

"This event was very special in that it wasn't just your average master class," Goldsmith says. "You have probably the most famous living flutist coming through your area and that alone is a big deal for those of us who play the flute, regardless of whether you are a student or an amateur player or a professional." Additionally, Goldsmith says that the event was made more memorable by organizers' attention to detail and by the fact that the audience was made up of Galway fans of all ages--and most of them flute players as well.

Lending Goldsmith support from the audience was Isabelle Chapuis Starr, her flute professor at San Jose State University, where Goldsmith earned her master's degree. "He seemed to really like her; he gave her a fantastic lesson," Chapuis Starr says. "The audience was captivated."

Goldsmith says that among the many insights Galway offered in the master class was an emphasis on melody and interpretation. "Throughout the class, he kept stressing the art of playing simple tunes, or the art of melody," Goldsmith says. "I think his point was that no matter how that simple tune is disguised, whether it be a complicated, long musical phrase or a simple short phrase, you need to play the spirit within that tune, bring that out and give it life. Music needs to move people, it needs to speak to their heart."

As it happens, Chapuis Starr is in a unique position to understand the training behind Galway's technique. She and Galway both studied at the Paris Conservatory, and with top flutists Jean-Pierre Rampal and Marcel Moyse, and singing was a part of training as flute players. Chapuis Starr notes that Galway mentioned this during the master class. "Galway referred to opera as a very important thing for flutists to know about because you play like a singer; you use the air the same way," she says. "And so he made my student, Ai, sing in front of the audience, and sing the phrase she was playing on the flute, which is the way we were trained in France."

In fact, Chapuis Starr first encountered Galway when she herself was a student in one of Moyse's master classes. "When I was in that class, someone with a long beard, long hair and a big cross around his neck on a chain came in, and in front on the students, he said 'Bonjour, Marcel.' We were shocked, that was so familiar, 'how can he talk like this, to the master?' " Chapuis Starr recalls that the bearded man--she learned afterwards it was a rising star named James Galway--proceeded to perform, from memory, a beautiful and technically difficult piece for Moyse, in honor of his 80th birthday. "We couldn't believe our ears; it was so extraordinary," Chapuis Starr says of the students' reactions.

Two years later, Galway was on the jury for Chapuis Starr' examination at the Paris Conservatory, and they crossed paths again in the early '80s in Los Angeles, at the premiere of Pied Piper Fantasy written for Galway by John Corigliano, who is the cousin of Chapuis Starr's husband, musician Mark Starr.

Everything seems to have come full circle, in a way, with Chapuis Starr seeing Goldsmith in a class with Galway. Chapuis Starr retired from SJSU this year to devote more time to performing, which includes continuing this season with Opera San José, where she has performed for 23 years. She will also teach master classes.

Goldsmith, who teaches private lessons, is planning some local recitals. A few days after the master class with Galway, she was delving into the finer points of the class, thinking over, for example, why he suggested playing a note a certain way. "He'll tell you what to do, but when you just focus on the 'what,' I think you can forget the 'why' and forget the big picture," Goldsmith says. "If you only remember the 'what,' then you might have improved on that piece, but you wouldn't necessarily improve your playing in general, or you wouldn't change your philosophy, about flute playing or music."