Every summer for the last 4 years, I've attended at least one Flute Master Class. 5 summers ago I didn't know what a master class was. My flute was rusting in the back of a closet where it'd been for the previous 40 years. January 2006 I decided I wanted to make flute an active part of my life again. That's when I enrolled in a local community college's symphonic band (no auditions required), and was told by the principal flutist to get my flute fixed and learn how to play it.

I've since gotten a couple of new/used flutes and have been learning to play diligently with private tutors, as well as courses in harmony, musicianship, regular master classes such as the ones at our own Tutti-Flutti Isabelle's salon, jazz workshops with Sonya Jason, classes at CSM with Mike Galisatus, participation in Gail Edward's SFSU Flute Choirs, and home lesson visits from Lars Johannesson, summer workshops with Wissam Boustany, Ian Clarke, Patricia Harper. All this work is paying off. I'm now able to enjoy playing music with friends and colleagues, and last week I got to play a solo piece in a medieval church full of amazing renaissance art as part of Rhonda Larson's Master Class in Casperia, Italia. The concert was our gift to the people of the village.

What makes Rhonda's Master Class different? Rhonda has a few quotes on her website, which encapsulate my experience: "We play music and the flute because we LOVE it, and it first feeds our own souls before we ever give it away to the public. How we work with music carries over into our daily lives in how to live, so we must foster this joy and love! Ultimately, what I teach is how to play the flute boldly, deeply, thoughtfully, and freely!" And she continues with a quote from Malcolm Forbes: "Too many people overvalue what they are not, and undervalue what they are."

Rhonda, a Grammy Award winning flutist and composer, won the NFA's Young Artist Competition including a Carnegie Hall debut, as the youngest winner in the competition's history. She was accepted to, but declined the invitation to attend Julliard. She is a very out-of-the-box musician/person. Her presence is graced with exuberance, enthusiasm, spirit, inspiration, fun, joy, and delight. A couple of years ago, Rhonda left her home for 9 months to teach music to children in war-torn Ramallah in Palestine. She has also shared the stage with such luminaries as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama at the Parliament of the World's Religions in South Africa. Rhonda is well-versed in world music and plays a variety of ethnic flutes, including pan pipes, crystal flutes, Native Indian. She believes that music is to "uplift the human heart".

Rhonda gave a solo concert to the community the night after we arrived at our location in magical Casperia, Italy - a walled medieval hilltop village where I had attended a yoga retreat the week before the master class. She played mostly her own compositions from memory, without music. She is a virtuoso flutist, a seasoned performer, and physically gorgeous with an infectious dimpled smile, stage presence, and resonance that ignites the venue.

You may be saying...enough about Rhonda...tell us about the Master Class. Well, the master class IS Rhonda. Rhonda made me realize that no matter what our skill, we are gifts. She helps us nurture our unique gifts. We are taught, in playfully fun ways to discover the music and rhythm within ourselves and give form to the music in our souls.

Most of our 7 days began with warm ups (the "Sweatshop") which included stretching to percussion, playing rhythmically to percussion -- including each one of us improvising tunes and repeating call and response with one another. We often practiced in pairs with one as a drone and the other improvising. We worked on 5ths and octaves in rhythmic patterns. Rhonda's big on setting the center and tone of the lower note and allowing the lower note to give birth to the upper notes (the 5ths, and octaves, etc.). As you know from "Be Still My Soul" there's a lot of quick octave relationship changes in her music, and she does so with so much style...often with the high note being soft and sweet and the low being very defined, loud and vibrant. These fun and energetic morning workouts raised our heart beats and got our hearts beating together, which helped solidify the family of flute friends we became in a short time.

A more traditional Master Class followed the morning warmups. The focus of the class is passion, discovering and unleashing our inner spirit, playing OUR music, from within....although Rhonda said the focus was on performing. Rhonda's websites says: "Rhonda will help you find your Best Self, and guide you in how to perform from THERE. Given this expansive teaching stance, she is less concerned with your current level of flute playing. She is more concerned that you are open, willing, eager, and in love with making music. " This philosophy reminds me of the Master Classes I take from Isabelle, who welcomes different levels of players as long as we have the passion for playing flute and dedication to learn and share. I love that about Isabelle and Rhonda. They both respectfully give us a chance.

As a flutist, Rhonda's resonance is amazing and her range of dynamics is awesome. Her articulation, triple and double tonguing are astounding, and her technique is magical - her fingers and tongue can race through challenging passages while remaining relaxed. Her openness to share knows no bounds. Her excellence in playing is matched by her mastery in teaching. Her master classes are jaw-dropping. The way she encouraged us to move into freedom, step out of the written page, out of the classical box, into our own improvisation and spirit is one of her many fortes.

The master class focused on performance and culminated in her performing students presenting a concert for the community of Casperia in the Medieval village church. We opened with a group playing Polorum Regina, a Gregorian Chant, as we walked in from the front door in two aisles down through the audience to the front of the stage. We were noble and regal as we entered the church and played this very moving piece. Then one by one, we took our turn to play our pieces for the audience. The concert program included Berkeley, Borne Carmen, CPE Bach, Ravel, Faure, Burton, Piazzola, Prokofiev, JS Bach -- and ended with Rhonda playing a few variations of Marin Marais (from memory). The group ranged in age from 15 to 60, with most of us either between 20 - 25, or 50 - 60! I brought my husband, and another player brought her mother and sister.

Rhonda exudes warmth, love, passion, compassion, humor, grace, elegance, fun, energy, vitality, humility and friendship. Her husband, Lee DeLisle is ebullient, with a quick wit and open arms. Together they are perfect and engaging hosts. Lee is hilarious, well-informed about Italy (having lived there for many years), with a great sense of humor and adventure. His PhD in Leisure (this is true, he is Department Chair at a University) enabled him to infuse the course with side trips to local points of interests including Rome, great meals, local hikes, swimming, local abbeys, etc.

I get excited by almost everyone I see in concert, and with whom I study, but Rhonda is a one-off. She imbues spirit into her playing and teaching. The dimpled smile and wonderful sense of playfulness -- her respect and love of nature, of people, of spirit -- and her adorable and spunky guide (Guido) Lee, her husband, made this course in this particularly beautiful part of the world, a transformative experience for me. Thank you Rhonda and Lee. xo, Marcia