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More performance, international travel, and ‘jury’ service
The big news of August was our trip to Rancho Puerta which was preceded by three days in San Diego. We have a special AirBnB (Athena-Rae and Bo Hart) where we have stayed a number of times. The highlight of this visit was to spend an evening with our great friend Dame Zandra Rhodes…..
A new flute, a new president, and new projects
Today it is exactly fifty two weeks since I slipped and broke my wrist and I am happy to report that my wrist, hand & fingers have almost recovered! Who would have believed that it would take so long? It is also fifty two weeks….
Our final week started with a really special concert organized by the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta at the Conant Performing Arts Center in Oglethorpe University. It’s a lovely theatre with outstanding technical staff and I loved playing there…..
We flew from Washington DC to Raleigh NC with United Airlines and because of our Gold status we were lucky enough to be upgraded, in addition to which, before the flight we enjoyed the luxury of the Red Carpet Club (we became Life Members in the seventies!) ……
On Saturday, 7 April, at the beginning of our three week East Coast Tour of the USA Michael and I flew out of Mexico City with United Airlines (excellent service!) into Newark, New Jersey and found that we had traveled from 80 degrees to….
2018 So Far – Concerts, Teaching, and Federal Prisons
This has been a really interesting period on a number of different fronts! But first I have to report that my wrist/hand/arm and fingers have all improved significantly since December. My wrist does seize up every now and again…..
Every year we plan to take a summer holiday like we used to “in the old days” and every year something crops up. This year our holiday plans fell through because I am just too busy – I’ll tell you why in my next blog…
I am really sorry not to have been in touch lately but life I have had several trips and a lot of work preparing for my upcoming concerts….
I was very lucky growing up in Oakland – indeed, I have been very lucky all my life. That’s not to say that I haven’t encountered difficulties and barriers along the way but when I have encountered them I have been able to use them as learning experiences and have benefited from them…..
Happy New Year! I hope that you, your families and loved ones had a wonderful festive season – mine was spent here in Mexico City (but more about that in my blog post!) 2017 promises to be an exciting year with several projects in the pipeline…….
It’s too long since my last blog but at last I have a few minutes to catch up on life in the last few weeks… In the last week of September I was sent to Germany by the state of Puebla as their official musical representative and to give a concert in the AUDI Factory in Ingolstadt…
I have just returned home from a week-long trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I spent the first twenty two years of my life. It was a very exciting, stimulating and at times a very emotional visit and I would like to share it with you…..
June has been an especially interesting month with a several highlights provided by distinguished friends. On 5 June we enjoyed the penultimate recital in our Sala Ponce Flute Series, given by Joaquín Melo and Irina Decheva….
Performing in Support of Young People and the Environment
The month of April was made especially memorable for me by two very important concerts. The first took place on 11 April in the amazing theatre at CECUT (Centro Cultural Tijuana) and celebrated the twenty fifth anniversary of a marvellous environmental organisation…
Last month, Rebecca Thompson and Mónica Saramiento of the US Embassy in Mexico City brought a group of fifteen girls to my concert in Sala Nezahualcóyotl. I enjoyed talking to them after the concert and promised to visit them in their home…
The general concept of life as a concert artist is that it must be great to swan around the world checking into beautiful hotels and dining out in restaurants – but life is seldom like that…
Elena Durán and Friends at Palacio de Bellas Artes
Every six months or so, I have had the pleasure and the honour of playing in Sala Manuel M. Ponce in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City’s Citadel of Culture…
The Incredible Esperanza Azteca Orchestra
I was introduced to the Esperanza Azteca Orchestra of Puebla last October when I had the pleasure of playing with this amazing group of young people and their conductor Julio Saldana in La Constanza and in front of an audience consisting of members of YPO/WPO….
For more than a decade now I have worked outside the concert-hall circuit under the banner of FLAUTA SIN FRONTERAS, taking music to those who most need it and who very often are not able to attend formal concerts…
Elena Durán performs at the Los Colinas Detention & Reentry Facility
As part of Elena Durán´s ongoing commitment to outreach and her belief in the power of music to foster mutual understanding, she recently performed a series of concerts in corrections institutions in California…
Elena Durán returned to the Sala Nezahualcóyotl (UNAM) on Sunday with the Edgar Ibarra Trio to give her very special performances of music by Queen and The Beatles in this year of UK IN MEXICO 2015…
