This month’s Flute Examiner is so exciting! I always love to read the articles my colleagues write, and this issue is no exception. Kelly writes about variety in movement, both when playing and not, and as I sit cross-legged on my loveseat typing this note, I know I ought to take her advice! Keith is sharing an article about a piccolo COA with lots of pictures—in fact, this is my piccolo, and he did a spectacular job on it. I have written an article on the merits of practicing slowly, born out of the gentle frustration I know many of my students feel with my insistence on it—but it pays off in the end! Our New York Women Composers offering this month is Victoria Bond’s Shenblu, and we have an energizing interview this month, with Hilary Abigana of The Fourth Wall. I hope that you will be as inspired and fired up by these offerings as I am—enjoy the issue with our thanks!

Jessica Dunnavant

Editor, Flute Examiner

	Hilary Abigana – A Flutist Who Doesn’t Play the Flute Like A Normal Person! Feature Photo Credit: © Andy Batt – www.andybatt.com When did you know that flute was THE instrument for you? What has your education…
	Watch Your Speed! I learned a valuable lesson at a vulnerable time, once. I was in graduate school, working on excerpts with my teacher and preparing…
	Pieces And Parts – A Piccolo COA Intro from Jessica: Keith does amazing work on instruments, so when it’s time for my piccolo’s annual COA, there’s nobody else I’d take…
	Variety – The Spice of Life (and Movement and Music) The full quotation “Variety’s the very spice of life,That gives it all its flavour” comes from the English poetWilliam Cowper(1731–1800) in The Task…
	“Shenblu” by Victoria Bond Shenblu Program Notes Shenblu was written for Carol Kniebusch, principal flutist of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. As Carol was going to China to…