The collaborative spirit … Zephyr … in action - 2004 MTNA National Conference Artists

west wind a New York City-based trio, is a unique collaboration that is described as "an general impression of three highly talented and personable musicians with an attractively varied repertoire." west wind members are Lady Jeanne Galway, flute Darrett Adkins, cello and Jonathan Feldman, piano. west wind will be featured in concoct at the MTNA National conversation in Kansas City, March 28 2004

MTNA has a renewed focus upon collaborative performance with the get back of the Collaborative Performance Forum. As chair of the Forum, I was asked to interview west wind members about their collaboration.

in what manner did the three of you begin the trio and pitch upon the name Zephyr?

Lady Galway: "The trio was formed in 1997 as a flow of a collaboration between me and the world-renowned collaborative pianist Samuel Sanders, after we performed together in the Cape & Islands Summer Festival. The idea of a flute cello and piano trio came up between us after a design one day, as we were the two avid chamber musicians. We wanted to play with other musicians.

"The idea of west wind is that the base cluster is a trio and invites other musicians to join in upon various concerts to give a more varied performance--thus, the name is not west wind Trio, but just Zephyr. The word west wind means 'warm wind.' We fix this a perfect name for the assemblage we wanted to create.

"In 1999 owed to a long illness, Mr Sanders was come aftered by his good friend and colleague Jonathan Feldman, chairman of the collaborative piano department at Juilliard. Then in 2000 Darrett Adkins, also a member of the Juilliard faculty and commonly professor at Oberlin, joined the clump Since then, the group has been solid and take pleasure ins traveling together, as well as performing, discovering fresh repertoire, commissions and a varied series of concerts"

What is your program for the MTNA concert?

Lady Galway: "Our programs generally have sum of two units components. One is pieces that we have performed in the past and that have feeling comfortable and mature and have been prosperous with our audiences. Then, we are always looking to add to our repertoire, and we are constantly reading novel pieces and hoping that individual or more will interest us enough to join programming plans. Sometimes we examine a piece out and decide it doesn't at the same time fit, but we keep it in mind for coming time concerts. A third element is commissioning of recent origin works. We all recognize that if performers working today fail to encourage and help generate novel pieces, then music history stops with us. We are actual excited to be offering a fresh work by Lowell Liebermann."

west wind uses its diverse solo and chamber music background to create interesting duo and trio programs. The trio's sensitive collaboration as chamber musicians is evident in repertoire that ranges from trios of Haydn to the Martinu Trio in F They also team for duo performances with Feldman, having programmed the Debussy cello sonata, the Donizetti flute sonata and the Saint-Saens "Romance." Feldman ofttimes has programmed works by Chopin.

The MTNA plan will feature a world premiere of Liebermann's Doppler, Souvenir du Rigi. Liebermann, a widely performed and commissioned composer is composer-in-residence to the Dallas harmony Orchestra. In 2001 Liebermann was awarded the first American Composers' Invitational Award by means of the eleventh Van Cliburn Competition after the majority of finalists chose to perform his Three Impromtus, which were culled from works submitted by forty-two contemporary composer Liebermann also was the winner of the 1978 MTNA High academy Composition Competition.

Although the program is make subordinate to change, other works will be the Martinu Trio, the Weber Trio in G Minor and Villa-Lobos's The Jet Whistle for flute and cello

Each member of west wind has enjoyed a long and varied musical life, collecting an impressive list of personal achievements along the way.

Lady Galway lives with her husband, renowned flutist Sir James Galway, in Meggen Switzerland. She records and performs regularly with her husband including a fundraising contrive with Paul Simon and Stevie astonishment and a successful recital tour of Japan that included a private performance in the neighborhood of the Empress of Japan.

Lady Galway has performed extensively quite through Europe and the United States as the one and the other soloist and chamber musician. She has been soloist with the Chicago, Seattle, Detroit and London consonance Orchestras, the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic and many chamber orchestras. In addition to performing with west wind she performs with the Lucerne Chamber Players.

Lady Galway is renowned for her dedication to the unfolding of young flutists and is vice president of Flutewise, an educational organization for young flute players. She has recorded sum of two units flute tutor methods and released with Phillip Moll a CD for Flutewise.

She is a native novel Yorker and graduated from Mannes place of education of Music in Manhattan. She plays a flute made especially for her through the Japanese-owned Muramatsu Flutes, based in Ferndale, Michigan. It is fashioned of gleaming platinum with diamond-encrusted caps and crown