Information About Gavin - Reading teacher -

(1 review)

Personal Description:

I enjoy an active international career as a flautist, composer and researcher. My passion for contemporary music has led me to appear at multiple festivals and summer schools including a residency at the Banff Centre where I worked with the International Contemporary Ensemble, and a four month studio in New York City studying with renowned contemporary flautist, Robert .

Alongside my practice, I am also the interim chair of the British Flute Society where I engage with the wider UK flute community and organise events including the BFS competitions.
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I often collaborate with composers in the creation of new works and have given many premieres in the UK, USA, Canada, and Poland as both a soloist and ensemble player. This interest has developed into my PhD which I completed at Royal Holloway, University of London, examining the collaborative process whilst looking at traditional Japanese musical aesthetics and exploring the Kingma System flute, a development of the modern western flute that enables the accurate production of quarter tones. Most recently I was invited to perform the US premieres of Kingma System works at the National Flute Association’s 47th annual convention in Salt Lake City and also appeared as a guest artist at the 2018 International Low Flutes festival in Washington DC.
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In 2019 I co-founded the epoch ensemble, a flexile instrumentation group specialising in new music, who gave their inaugural performance at St Martins in the Fields as semifinalists in their annual chamber music competition to high praise. I am also a founding member of Monday's Child, a pierrot ensemble also specialisng in contemporary repertorie.
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Gavin was a member of the BCMG NEXT young artist programme where he enjoyed working with Rebecca Saunders and Harrison Birtwistle and performing works by Gérard Grisey, Péter Eötvös, Helmut Lachenmann, and Fabio Vacchi.

Tutoring Experience:

I have taught flute privately from beginner to post grade 8 diplomas with 100% success rate in exams and students winning music scholarships to prestigious private schools. During my PhD training I delivered workshops to undergraduate students on contemporary performance looking at complex rhythms, extended techniques, and improvisation. I have supported students through ABRSM theory exams and use lessons to help with academic music at school.

Tutoring Approach:

I believe that we each take a unique path to success when it comes to music. Though there are set ideas in technique and tone development that are crucial to the beginner, I have come to notice through my experience that each student may access these ideas differently. Through this I have developed a method of teaching where I work with the student to create drills and exercises that practise the problem areas whilst developing a musical sense.
I am willing to teach toward graded examinations, though I will not push these onto students if they jus want to learn for fun. As I have an interest in new playing techniques, I use these to help develop traditional playing.