Pearl Flute Masterclass with Krzysztof Kaczka

We had a great event last night with top international flautist Krzysztof Kaczka. It was a full house, so many thanks to all for attending, and especially those who performed. It takes some guts to stand up in front of a room full of strangers and perform a piece for public critiquing! It was especially heart warming to see that 5 of the 6 playing volunteers were teenagers as one of our main goals with these events is to support and inspire the next generation of musicians.

Krzysztof is quite the unstoppable force, his passion for the music and for improving each students playing was infectious…albeit we ran just a little bit long and as usual with these events we always wish there was more time for all involved but it was clear that was a great deal to be learnt from watching and listening to the tips and advice given to all the pupils who covered a broad range of levels and experience.

Personally I’ve been involved in running various masterclass events here at Dawkes and have attended a good number myself during my musical training. It’s interesting that each tutor comes with their own ideas and philosophies, many of which are different and mean that you can take something interesting from each session. There are however many themes that crop up regularly and most (in the instruments we deal with) revolving around breathing and support. Perhaps in our normal week to week lessons or daily (!) practice we are too focused on the notes, when it may be just as useful (if not more so) to spend some time building our sound with breathing and tone exercises. From this bedrock the building blocks of technique can be added and then of course onto musicality and interpretation but too often the breathing and support is not prioritised as it should be in Wind instrument tuition.

It is of course true that events like this also are a great supplement to the regular lessons you may be receiving, a chance to look at your playing from another angle – physically and philosophically and also it’s useful experience for performing in public. Hopefully the players of all ages, and viewing attendees, all picked something up from the evening both in terms of practical tips and musical inspiration to push their playing further.

Many thanks to Pearl Flutes and of course Krzysztof for their efforts.

Stay tuned for TEN upcoming videos with Krzysztof where he goes into many aspects of flute playing including; practice techniques, successful warm-ups, building a good tone and much more! Sign Up (here) to our flute newsletter to get notifications on these videos.