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Adam Eccleston: Hello, from All Classical Radio, I'm Adam Eccleston, guest hosting for WQXR. Tonight we feature four international flute players from Sir James Galway's Flute Academy on this edition of the McGraw family's Young Artists Showcase.

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The Young Artists Showcase has been generously underwritten by the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation since 1978. For all that time and more, Sir James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway have been in the musical spotlight. Their contributions to music are limitless and have supplied the world with music from around the globe. For example, the blending of musical genres from classical and jazz to Irish and Japanese melodies. On top of performing, both are passionate teachers and have devoted countless hours to youth and adults.

Back when I attended the academy in the early 2000s, I gained so much knowledge from the two of them. Tonight, I'll have a conversation with Sir James and Lady Jeanne, and we'll hear performances from four alumni of the program. We will hear selections from flutist Zeyneb Canay, Julin Cheung, Denis Savelyev, and Italian flutist Lorenzo Morrocchi, each of whom received the Rising Star Award. Sir James and Lady Jeanne, I am so happy you are here today. Tell us, how did the Academy get started?

Sir James Galway: Well, it got started 37 years ago in Lucerne, in one of the local schools. And, uh, we had 150 kids turned up for this thing because it was the first time I'd ever done a-an open class.

Lady Jeanne Galway: We always say that what-what started as a simple master class with just inviting a few friends turned into this wonderful, wonderful, um, outreach program that we do and, um, and celebrating the legacy of Sir James.

Adam Eccleston: And did you feel there was a need for an academy of this sort?

Sir James Galway: Quite definitely. You know, we have to train these kids up, get-getting them ready to play in an orchestra. And they need to know the repertoire, how to play in a woo-woodwind section, all that sort of stuff.

Lady Jeanne Galway: And I think that what we-we felt was needed was this-this very direct teaching that-that Sir James gives. And it's just about relaying the message through his experience and-and really saying to them, "This is the level you have to be at if this is what you want to do." And, um, and I think that was what you really brought home to them. Especially in the beginning, they've-they've come in over-over year by year.

And, um, and you rea-really bring home all the time of-of what it takes if you wanna get out there on the highest level. But also while you're on that journey, um, how you can enjoy it, and also that you do have different avenues you can go into. But as a classical musician, I think we all strive for excellence. But what this is about, besides the passion that we both have for teaching, shared passion. For me, it's all about, uh, working to celebrate the legacy of Sir James, and the beautiful flute playing that he has brought to us for so many years. And the question is, how does he do it?

Sir James Galway: That's a secret I'm not telling you.

Lady Jeanne Galway: That's a secret. I will always say [laughter] how do you do it? And after-- and he'll-- and then your favorite word is?

Sir James Galway: Practice. [laughter]

Adam Eccleston: Yes, indeed. I heard that many times. [chuckles] Let's talk a little bit about the Rising Star Award. What is that exactly?

Lady Jeanne Galway: Well, we don't have a competition, but what we came up with, uh, during the festival was there were certain students that were coming for many, many years and we would just watch them grow and mature over the years. And because we speak about the legacy of Sir James, we wanted to honor these students to give them something special back. And so we came up with this idea of the Rising Star Award, which is, uh, one or two, or sometimes we had three students throughout the year. Where after many years of coming we just watched their growth in many different areas of their lives.

And, uh, then we-- Sir James and I and our team, we would discuss what we thought, uh, if we could honor this student, and it was always a big surprise. And so with this, we would honor one to three students du-- at the end of the summer festival, and they would get this prestigious award that is called the Rising Star Award, it's not called the James Galway Award. It's because we always like to bring in this idea of the community and the group, that the group is behind the performer. And this is what the Galway Flute Academy is about, totally about, is just supporting each other.

Adam Eccleston: Mm, very powerful. I'm excited to get into some music here. One of Sir James' well-known recordings is James Galway Plays Reinecke, which was recorded in 1981. Today, we will hear Rising Star recipient flutist Lorenzo Morrocchi playing Undine Sonata by Carl Reinecke.

[MUSIC - Carl Reinecke: Undine Sonata]

Adam Eccleston: Italian flutist, Lorenzo Morrocchi with pianist Raffaele Maisano performing Carl Reinecke's Undine Sonata for flute and piano. Amazing, right?

Lady Jeanne Galway: Wow.

Sir James Galway: Very good.

Lady Jeanne Galway: Huh? Boy, Lorenzo, I'm so proud of you. Um, Lorenzo's very special. And, um, what beautiful-- oh God, he-he just touched my soul. He was just with us last week actually. We've just started now doing once-a-month our live Classes with Sir James.

Adam Eccleston: Wow, that's incredible. You're listening to the McGraw Family's Young Artist Showcase on WQXR. I'm Adam Eccleston from All Classical Radio. Tonight we are featuring four recipients of the Rising Star Award from Sir James Galway's Flute Academy. Each year, Sir James and his wife, Lady Jeanne, select a Rising Star flute player from their academy. Deux Poemes de Ronsard, a song cycle by Albert Roussel for a solo flute and soprano was first performed in Paris in 1924 with legendary French flutist René Le Roy who Sir James idolized.

Inspired by the 16th-century French poet, Pierre de Ronsard, Roussel uses two of his poems. Fair Nightingale tells a story about a Nightingale who sings to his beloved. The Second movement, Sky, Air, Winds celebrates the power and beauty of nature, and it reflects Roussel's love of nature. We'll hear a performance of this stunning piece by Ukrainian flutist Denis Savelyev, who studied in Europe and in New York City. He was a prize winner of the renowned New York Flute Club Competition, as well as the National Flute Association Competition. Currently, he is artist in residence at Marlboro Festival. He is joined with Soprano Sara LeMesh.

[MUSIC - Roussel: Deux Poemes de Ronsard - Denis Savelyev, flute; Sara LeMesh, Soprano]

Adam Eccleston: Flutist, Denis Savelyev, and Soprano, Sara LeMesh performed Deux Poemes de Ronsard, a song cycle by Albert Roussel. Mm, he has a sensational tone.

Sir James Galway: Wow. [laughs]

Lady Jeanne Galway: Beautiful. Denis is very special. We met Denis, uh, at a masterclass, uh, sponsored by the New York Flute Center in New York City. Do you remember this? And Denis was one of the performers. And when we had to choose three performers, I remembered he came in as a late entry, I think. And he was studying at the time with Judy Mendenhall at the Mannes College of Music, and I went to the Mannes College of Music.

And so I talked to him after he played the Gaubert. It was so beautiful and his color and control of the instrument and so it was no question giving him the Rising Star Award. And as we go live next summer, we're hoping to have our Rising Stars in concert that did not get their concerts because of the pandemic. But they still provided all of them with a beautiful, beautiful performance.

Adam Eccleston: You know, the way that the flute is combined with the voice is unlike any other. So James, have you done any duets with flute and soprano or flute in any voice?

Sir James Galway: I made a record with a-a jazz singer called Cleo Laine, she's a British singer. And that was-that was great, absolutely great. One-one piece we-we recorded in two different studios and it was-- it was a great-- it's a great record, I-I think.

Lady Jeanne Galway: But you also per-performed with Jessye Norman.

Sir James Galway: Oh, yeah. I always remember Jessye. We were standing in the wings of Usher Hall in Edinburgh and we're getting ready to go on and she turned-she turned and she said to me, "James, be careful of my dress." [laughter] And a-and a number of people had stepped on her dress.

Lady Jeanne Galway: So he was very well trained for when we went on stage, I have to tell you.

Adam Eccleston: Wow, wow, wow. We will take a brief break and we'll return with music by Frank Martin performed by 16-year-old flutist Julin Cheung.

Welcome back. I am Adam Eccleston from All Classical Radio guest hosting for WQXR. Today we are featuring four Rising Star recipients from Sir James Galway's Flute Academy. The Galway Flute Academy started over 34 years ago as an annual masterclass in Switzerland, and has evolved into being one of the most sought-after summer flute festivals in the world for students, professionals, and amateurs.

As part of the festival each year one attendee receives a Rising Star Award. Another one of those recipients is Julin Cheung, a 16-year-old flutist from the United States. He started the flute at age six and joined the prestigious Seattle Youth Symphony at nine years old. Julin has won numerous competitions both abroad and locally and was featured on From the Top. Today we'll hear Julin play Ballade for flute and piano by French composer Frank Martin.

[MUSIC - Martin: Ballade for flute and piano - Julin Cheung, flute; Yoni Levyatov, piano]

[applause]

Adam Eccleston: Frank Martin, Ballade for flute and piano played by Julin Cheung and Yoni Levyatov.

Lady Jeanne Galway: Ooh.

Sir James Galway: There you have it.

Lady Jeanne Galway: Yeah, there you have it. Boy.

Adam Eccleston: You know, he's-he's so unique as a player and he's so young with so many colors, and he can do almost everything on the flute in such a young age. What do you think about Julin?

Sir James Galway: Oh, amazing. That's a great talent.

Lady Jeanne Galway: He had this when he was very young. Um, so was he 13 or 11 or 12 when he came? He was there for a couple of years. He was in my class the first year, and then he graduated to yours. So that's how it works. And there is on-- Sir James's YouTube channel, there's a class of him playing the Rodrigo Concerto at the age of 12 or 13.

Sir James Galway: From memory.

Lady Jeanne Galway: From memory. It's incredible playing. It's a wonderful concert. And so what we did that year, because he was so outstanding and so was another young girl, and, um, we put them together, and Julin actually had arranged duos for them. And I watched the two of them sightread this together at the age of 13, but with such musical talent and-- I mean such musicality and that was the key. That was the key that really touched our hearts, I believe.

Adam Eccleston: German composer Sigfrid Karg-Elert loved the flute. He wrote about 30 pieces for the flute, which were all written for his friend and colleague, Carl Bartuzat of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Karg-Elert was inspired by Carl Reinecke's composition style. You can hear some resemblance of Reinecke in Sinfonische Kanzone played by Turkish flutist, Zeynep Canay, and Leonardo Bartelloni on piano. At 16, she played with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, and was the recipient of the Galway Flute Academy Rising Star Award in 2021.

[Music - Karg-Elert: Sinfonische Kanzone, Op.114- Zeynep Canay, flute, Leonardo Bartelloni, piano]

Adam Eccleston: Sinfonische Kanzone played by Turkish flutist, Zeynep Canay, and Leonardo Bartelloni on piano. Beautiful piece also, James.

Sir James Galway: Yeah. [chuckles] Well, this is one of the only pieces that I like from Karg-Elert. I'm not a big fan, but it's a very good piece, I have to say. And it really puts a bar up when-when these kids play it. They're-they're so good. Very high standards.

Lady Jeanne Galway: Very, very high standards. And I-I think when Zeynep got this award, I remember the tears Zeynep and, uh, it was just, uh-

Sir James Galway: It's very emotional.

Lady Jeanne Galway: It's very emotional because this is the golden stamp from all of us-- from Sir James, but from all of us together and from-- and the class, of course, being so proud of him. So difficult piece though. Really difficult to pull off.

Adam Eccleston: Yes, it is. [laughs] To close this program, we'll hear again from flutist, Julin Cheung playing a fun and fast performance of the last movement from Concertino by Czech composer, Erwin Schulhoff.

[MUSIC - Schulhoff: Concertino, WV 75, IV. Rondino. Allegro gaio- Julin Cheung, flute; Jack Kessler, viola; Tobias Vigneau, bass]

[applause]

Adam Eccleston: Sensational ending. That was flutist Julin Cheung, who's playing a bit of pickle in this piece, and his colleagues, violist Jack Kessler and bassist Tobias Vigneau performing the final movement Rondino from Concertino by Czech composer, Erwin Schulhoff. You've been listening to The Rising Star recipients from Sir James Galway's Flute Academy. To learn more about the Galway Flute Academy, visit galwayfluteacademy.com. A very special thank you to Sir James and Lady Jeanne for spending time with me from Switzerland. While that completes this week's edition of the McGraw Family's Young Artist Showcase, which is generously underwritten on WQXR by the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Family Foundation, here's Terry McGraw with more.

Terry McGraw: Good evening, everyone. It's great to be with you, and it's always great being with the Young Artist Showcase and to hear these really wonderful and inspiring musicians as they continue to share their incredible gifts with us every week. I can't wait to hear the fabulous talent coming up on the showcase, and I am so pleased to be able to support the series all through its well over four decades on WQXR, and there's so much more to come.

Adam Eccleston: Thank you, Terry. Next week we'll hear incredible music from the Boston-based group, COOS or Castle of our Skins dedicated to fostering cultural curiosity and celebrating Black artistry through music. We'll have a conversation with co-founder and violist of the group, Ashleigh Gordon, so please stay tuned. A special thank you to WQXR program producers Laura Boyman and Max Fine. Our generous program underwriter is the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Family Foundation. From All Classical Radio, I'm Adam Eccleston on WQXR. Goodnight.

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