Robin L Aye Stark Surreality CD

I play flutes, and don’t play sax or other horns. This means that the flute is my main means of expression. Some people who play these other instruments use the flute for the quiet or cool side of their playing. I express the whole range of emotion and mood with flutes. That means that sometimes my music is harsh and hard, other times quiet, serene. Sometimes it’s hot, sometimes cool. Almost always, though, it is with intensity. Using different flutes and recorders, I hope to add some subtlety to my music, and I hope those of you who listen to it will let yourselves get lost in the possibilities.My family is a musical one. My parents were choral singers and my sisters play music. I began playing the flute in grade four in the Royal Oak, Michigan, Public Schools. I played in school bands and, in high school in the Chicago area, started playing flute in jazz groups. I have also played mandolin in folk, Irish, and bluegrass bands in Chicago, and have performed on several recordings in several genres. I have even been a busker in several cities (once I was arrested for busking). On various flutes and recorders, I have performed everything from Handel and Bach to avant-garde jazz. I have sung in several church choirs and community choirs, including the E.C.H.O.E.S. From Heaven Gospel Choir at Michigan Tech in Houghton, MI, with whom I also put in time playing the flute. I am a graduate of Regents (now Excelsior) College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, after two years at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in Waterloo, Ontario. I was ordained a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1992, but I am not currently involved in parish ministry. I also write essays on various subjects and short stories, many of which I write to remind myself of places I’ve lived. My music has been performed in several venues in the United States and Canada. In July of 2004, my work, A Game For Two was premièred at the New Chamber Music Concert of the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Houghton, Michigan. Other works have also been performed at subsequent New Chamber Music Concerts. In 2005, the third movement of Suite For Viola was performed, and in 2006 Textures for French horn and percussion was premèred. I love improvisational playing, but I enjoy playing the music of others, as well. I enjoy working with other performers and composers, though I’m not averse to playing solo. I love composing, as it is like playing instruments that I don’t play. For me, being a composer naturally follows from being an improvisational player. When improvising, I compose whenever I play. Writing music down makes it easier for others to play. I have had many influences on my work, from non-Western as well as Western sources, and though many of these influences cannot be identified by particular sounds or combinations of sounds, they can be felt. To be influenced by another musician or composer (or writer, or artist, or someone not usually thought of as being connected to the arts at all) does not always mean that the influence will be audible or visible. I enjoy quiet, too. Music would be very difficult without quiet.I'm married, and we live and garden (and move snow and haul wood) in sight of Lake Superior on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.