A Conversation with Erin ViveroBoundless Flute catches up with East Haddam resident and flutist, Erin Vivero.
|
|
Boundless Flute: In what ways is the flute a part of your life?
Erin Vivero: Just playing the flute was all I had intended it to be when I started at age 5. Soccer was the other love of my life and I spent my childhood prepping to be a professional in both fields. A few years into my college years, I won a scholarship that required I intern/teach in the public school system, so I was placed at the Montecito Union Elementary School as an assistant to the band director. I then began teaching privately in Montecito and my teaching career began.
These days flute is all inclusive to me: performing, teaching, and meeting some pretty incredible people from all over the world. It’s even randomly opened doors to some acting gigs! I know, totally random.
BF: What sort of acting gigs? That’s so fabulous!
EV: My flute is like this magic wand that gets my foot in the door for really cool experiences that have nothing to do with me actually playing the flute. I was recording a piece in the studio and the conversation turned to the upcoming acting auditions for the North Pole Express show. [A holiday show that runs on the Essex Steam Train each winter]. Somehow that led to me randomly auditioning, and for the last two years I’ve been an actor on the train for the Christmas season. My character is based on me, but with a million more rhinestones. Her goal is to encourage all passengers to find and share their talent with the world. This includes playing instruments, singing, dancing, and the additional talent category of “other.”
BF: What’s your favorite aspect of being a flutist?
EV: I love being on stage and being able to emotionally communicate with an audience via my performance. I’m generally known to be the flutist that combines music and shenanigans (which I love and that’s no secret), but I think having people of all walks of life find something in the performance that they can relate to is very humbling and encouraging.
BF: If not flute, what instrument would you play?
EV: Solo triangle. It’s lightweight and I would have been a Geico superstar. If I had a time machine I would go back to 5-year-old me and tell me that the triangle is where it’s at.
BF: As a teacher, what’s the number one thing you hope your students walk away with?
EV: Confidence. I don’t want them all to sound the same, or even sound like me. I want them to have the technical skills needed to grow as a player, but I want them to musically mature into a player that is reflective of their colorful teacher’s confidence, so they can find their own “sound.”
BF: What’s the strangest gig you've ever played?
Erin Vivero: Just playing the flute was all I had intended it to be when I started at age 5. Soccer was the other love of my life and I spent my childhood prepping to be a professional in both fields. A few years into my college years, I won a scholarship that required I intern/teach in the public school system, so I was placed at the Montecito Union Elementary School as an assistant to the band director. I then began teaching privately in Montecito and my teaching career began.
These days flute is all inclusive to me: performing, teaching, and meeting some pretty incredible people from all over the world. It’s even randomly opened doors to some acting gigs! I know, totally random.
BF: What sort of acting gigs? That’s so fabulous!
EV: My flute is like this magic wand that gets my foot in the door for really cool experiences that have nothing to do with me actually playing the flute. I was recording a piece in the studio and the conversation turned to the upcoming acting auditions for the North Pole Express show. [A holiday show that runs on the Essex Steam Train each winter]. Somehow that led to me randomly auditioning, and for the last two years I’ve been an actor on the train for the Christmas season. My character is based on me, but with a million more rhinestones. Her goal is to encourage all passengers to find and share their talent with the world. This includes playing instruments, singing, dancing, and the additional talent category of “other.”
BF: What’s your favorite aspect of being a flutist?
EV: I love being on stage and being able to emotionally communicate with an audience via my performance. I’m generally known to be the flutist that combines music and shenanigans (which I love and that’s no secret), but I think having people of all walks of life find something in the performance that they can relate to is very humbling and encouraging.
BF: If not flute, what instrument would you play?
EV: Solo triangle. It’s lightweight and I would have been a Geico superstar. If I had a time machine I would go back to 5-year-old me and tell me that the triangle is where it’s at.
BF: As a teacher, what’s the number one thing you hope your students walk away with?
EV: Confidence. I don’t want them all to sound the same, or even sound like me. I want them to have the technical skills needed to grow as a player, but I want them to musically mature into a player that is reflective of their colorful teacher’s confidence, so they can find their own “sound.”
BF: What’s the strangest gig you've ever played?
Erin air-fluting with Dee Snider
EV: I don’t think I’ve ever played a strange gig so much as I’ve done really strange things at gigs; some intentional and some unintentional. As far as intentional shenanigans go, I like to put a little twist into everything I can during performances. If it’s not changing shoes for every piece during one show or wearing a fake mustache to play some Queen, then it’s definitely asking super famous people to play an air flute duet with me.
My flutes sometimes have adventures of their own, and I get to follow along. I have an alto flute that I loan out to only a select few people and as luck would have it, Greig Shearer (former Hartford Symphony Orchestra Principal Flute) needed an alto (her name is Norma) for a touring broadway gig that was coming through Hartford. So Norma debuted (with Greig) in Wicked without me. As a compromise, I did get to sit in the pit and watch the show next to the music director.
|
BF: Anything else people should know about you?
EV: I like big flutes and I cannot lie… BF: Sooo, no sense of humor whatsoever? EV: None. BF: Do you have a website, blog, or email address that people can reach you at? EV: I love when people reach out even to say hi, so visit me at www.erinvivero.com for the latest flute shenanigans, but also consider visiting my blog/website that’s all about the actual craziness in the professional musician world: www.confessionsofaprofessionalmusician.com. I’m looking for new submissions! |
Erin rockin' the subcontrabass flute at a Connecticut Flute Orchestra concert
|
