Laura presents two workshops at the Utah Flute Convention on Modal Flute Warmup and talks about how to spark discovery in your flute playing.

Saturday, March 15, 2025 - UTAH FLUTE CONVENTION
Westminster University, Jewett Center for the Performing Arts
& Emma Eccles Jones Conservatory
9:00 am – general class
Sparking a Sense of Discovery with Laura Lentz (Manship Choir Room)
4:00 pm - high school class
Sparking a Sense of Discovery with Laura Lentz (Manship Choir Room)

fivebyfive premieres NYSCA-funded Ephemera Ballads and shares music from Catskills and Appalachians with multi-instrumentalist Emily Pinkerton

fivebyfive premieres NYSCA-funded Ephemera Ballads and shares music from Catskills and Appalachians with multi-instrumentalist Emily Pinkerton

fivebyfive + Emily Pinkerton (banjo) perform live on WXXI Classical 91.5FM’s program Live from Hochstein (Rochester, NY)

Book Serendipity: An Interactive Workshop for Kids and Families Featuring Storytelling and Live Music

Winton Library is excited to invite children and families to Book Serendipity, a unique and interactive workshop where the magic of storytelling and music come together. This special event, happening on April 14, 2025 at 11AM will give children the opportunity to discover hidden gems in books and experience live musical improvisation that brings their stories to life.

During Book Serendipity, kids will be encouraged to explore the library by picking a random book, opening it to any page, and sharing what they find—whether it’s an exciting adventure, an interesting fact, or a touching story. Then, the workshop facilitator, Laura Lentz, a professional flutist, will create a spontaneous piece of music inspired by the mood, emotion, or storyline of the child’s discovery, using a variety of flutes made from different materials.

“I love the idea of kids discovering something unexpected in a book and then hearing it transformed into music,” says Lentz. “It’s about celebrating the joy of serendipity—finding something surprising—and how we can express that through both words and sound.”

The workshop will be around 30 minutes in length, but there is flexibility in the duration.

Book Serendipity: An Interactive Workshop for Kids and Families Featuring Storytelling and Live Music

Laura is excited to invite children and families to Book Serendipity, a unique and interactive workshop where the magic of storytelling and music come together. This special event, happening on Saturday April 26 will give children the opportunity to discover hidden gems in books and experience live musical improvisation that brings their stories to life.

During Book Serendipity, kids will be encouraged to explore the library by picking a random book, opening it to any page, and sharing what they find—whether it’s an exciting adventure, an interesting fact, or a touching story. Then, the workshop facilitator, Laura Lentz, a professional flutist, will create a spontaneous piece of music inspired by the mood, emotion, or storyline of the child’s discovery, using a variety of flutes made from different materials.

“I love the idea of kids discovering something unexpected in a book and then hearing it transformed into music,” says Lentz. “It’s about celebrating the joy of serendipity—finding something surprising—and how we can express that through both words and sound.”

The workshop will be around 30 minutes in length, but there is flexibility in the duration.

Serendipity: with flutist Laura Lentz & friends
a program of chamber music celebrating the power of good chance happenings 

SATURDAY MAY 10, Payton Violins 
250 N. Goodman Street, Rochester NY
5:45PM serendipity workshop
7PM pre-concert chat
7:30PM concert 
Reception follows performance 

Registration and further info will be available at: https://www.paytonviolins.com/events

The program (50 minutes of music plus a 10 minute intermission) features works by four leading and innovative composers and provide a vibrant exploration of serendipity:

 • Missy Mazzoli: Magic with Everyday Objects (flute, cello, piano)
Originally written for mixed quintet, this work uncovers beauty and possibility in unexpected places.

 • Marc Mellits: Discrete Structures (flute + string quartet)
Commissioned by a consortium of 25 wind players, this work exemplifies the balance of structure and spontaneity.

Intermission 

 • Gabriela Lena Frank: Canto de Harawi: Amadeoso (flute, clarinet, piano)
This tone poem captures a childhood dream, bridging imagination, history, and personal experience.

 • JacobTV: Serendipity2 (alto flute, string quartet, tabla)
This piece celebrates cross-cultural dialogue and reimagines the original improvised solo violin part for alto flute.

with:
Beo String Quartet
Tom Nanni tabla
Svetlana Garitselov cello
Jacob Ertl piano
Marcy Bacon clarinet
workshop led by Katie Fittipaldi

Music of Marc Mellits and JacobTV at George Eastman Museum

with:
Beo String Quartet
Tom Nanni tabla

Water Magic: music for flute & electronics
exploring unpredictabilty & reconnection

Music of Sean William Calhoun, Alex Shapiro, & Chloe Upshaw, with special guest Alex Barbato, flute

This is by invite and for a small audience.

PROGRAM:
Escapade in Blue and Gold by Sean William Calhoun (two flutes & electronics, soft premiere)

In Spring 2025, NASA is planning a launch with two identical spacecraft to investigate how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ magnetic environment and how this interaction drives the planet’s atmospheric escape. ESCAPADE is the first multi-spacecraft orbital science mission to the Red Planet.

• Its twin orbiters will take simultaneous observations from different locations around Mars.

• The observations will reveal the planet’s real-time response to space weather and how the Martian magnetosphere changes over time.

ESCAPADE will analyze how Mars’ magnetic field guides particle flows around the planet, how energy and momentum are transported from the solar wind through the magnetosphere, and what processes control the flow of energy and matter into and out of the Martian atmosphere.

Sean William Calhoun’s Escapade in Blue and Gold is inspired by the ESCAPADE (ESCApe and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers).

The Forest by Chloe Upshaw (flute & electronics)
If you could amplify the voice of the forest, what would it say? (With audio samples collected from the WV Botanical Gardens.) - Chloe Upshaw

Water Magic by Alex Shapiro (two flutes & electronics, soft premiere).
Water Magic began life for a soloist, in a piece called Water Crossing commissioned by clarinetist F. Gerrard Errante. When Gerry told me of his friendship with clarinetist D. Gause and their duet recitals together, it seemed natural to create a second part. Years later, flutist Laura Lentz thought it would be a beautiful duet for flutes, and I entirely agree.
Years ago Gerry told me of his canoe, tied up at the dock by his house on the Virginia coastline. The thought of it waitng there for me made me imagine a wondrous journey, beginning in still, lake-like waters. During this mythical voyage, the canoe gradually morphs into a sailboat entering the open ocean, with dolphins dancing ahead of the bow. With this new version of the music, there are now two happy adventurers in the canoe. -Alex Shapiro

Duality Keys by Sean William Calhoun (alto flute & electronics, in preparation for performance at NFA Convention this August in Atlanta).
Duality Keys is inspired by wave/particle duality and explores quantum mechanics.

Book Serendipity: An Interactive Workshop for Kids and Families Featuring Storytelling and Live Music

Rochester Public Library is excited to invite children and families to Book Serendipity, a unique and interactive workshop where the magic of storytelling and music come together. This special event, happening on Saturday May 31 at 1PM will give children the opportunity to discover hidden gems in books and experience live musical improvisation that brings their stories to life.

During Book Serendipity, kids will be encouraged to explore the library by picking a random book, opening it to any page, and sharing what they find—whether it’s an exciting adventure, an interesting fact, or a touching story. Then, the workshop facilitator, Laura Lentz, a professional flutist, will create a spontaneous piece of music inspired by the mood, emotion, or storyline of the child’s discovery, using a variety of flutes made from different materials.

“I love the idea of kids discovering something unexpected in a book and then hearing it transformed into music,” says Lentz. “It’s about celebrating the joy of serendipity—finding something surprising—and how we can express that through both words and sound.”

The workshop will be around 30 minutes in length, but there is flexibility in the duration.

Laura performs “Duality Keys’ by Sean William Calhoun at the National Flute Association Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

PROGRAM NOTES:
Duality Keys was composed for flutist Laura Lentz, and is inspired by wave/particle duality. In the first section, the electronics are made from chopping up the sound of two notes played together on a keyboard into rapid streams of particles. In the middle section, the waveform of the keyboard dyad is put into wavetable synthesizers and tiny segments of it become the waves being oscillated and processed. And in the final section, both approaches — the particles and the waves — are used simultaneously. Amidst all of that, the alto flute plays various perspectives on a slow melody.