JANE GILBERT – PURE FLUTE

On December 13th, Roubi L’Roubi is hosting an evening of baroque music and champagne. The concert will feature soprano Anna-Maria Rincon, Laurence Cummings and Adrian Butterfield of the London Handel Orchestra and Rachel Brown on flute. Also on the programme are flautist Jane Gilbert and poet Deanna Moss.

The concert will be held at St Ethelburga’s, 78, Bishopsgate, London ec2n 4ag (see map)

Tickets are £ 65 – contact : roubi@roubi.eu

 

JANE GILBERT – PURE FLUTE by Angie Macdonald

Like many musicians in this country, Jane Gilbert has to earn a living doing something other than music. By day she works as an insurance broker, where she specialises in kidnapping for ransom insurance.

She is also a fine cook and enjoys trout fishing in the summer where she has a rod on the river Test. “Fish out of the river tastes better than anything in the world,” she enthuses. Her penchant for fast cars has seen her clock 141mph in a Porche GT3 RS at a racing circuit track day, an experience she describes as “totally exhilarating”.

So it comes as somewhat of a surprise to discover that in-between her job and numerous activities, Gilbert has also been busy as a flautist, having played 20 concerts this year, including five in Argentina and one in France. Her first concert for 2008 will be on 15th January in Chichester Cathedral. “It’s a mad life,” she laughs when I describe her life as balanced.

Gilbert comes from a musical family – her father played the saxophone and her mother sang. She started playing the piano when she was five and by the age of ten she knew that she wanted to be a musician. She was 15 when she started playing the flute. At that stage she “really wanted to learn the violin”. At school, when the time came to choose instruments, Gilbert picked up a flute and played a tune. A teacher who overheard her said, “You better learn that,” and so her career as a flautist was born.

After school she studied flute and piano at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Although she describes the flute as “a completely wonderful instrument”, Gilbert is unsentimental in her description of flute playing. “It’s all about getting the right noise….you can have pure noises and coarse noises… you’ve got to get your fingers and lips to move at the right time.”

In fact it was only several decades later that Gilbert was finally able to realise her dream of playing the violin. She started taking lessons recently, and describes herself as being “in the nursery” stage of learning. “It is a big thrill when you get something right.”

Jane Gilbert’s association with Roubi L’Roubi has a happy beginning – Roubi helped design her wedding dress over six years ago and since then she’s had “loads of clothes” made by him. As a flautist, “it is very important that clothes are not restricting in any way,” as this could affect arm movement and more importantly, breathing.

For Roubi L’Roubi’s concert on 13th December, Gilbert has chosen two pieces: Debussy’s Syrinx and Pan by Leonardo De Lorenzo. The first, written in 1913 and originally called “Flûte de Pan”, was the first unaccompanied flute solo piece of the 20th century. Debussy renamed it after the myth of the nymph Syrinx who is chased by Pan and transformed into hollow reeds when she asks the water nymphs for help. When Pan reaches the reeds the breath from his sigh of frustration makes a haunting sound. Charmed by the sweet sound, Pan cut some of the reeds and so the pan pipes were born. Gilbert describes the piece as possessing “dream-like sumptuousness”.

The second piece, Leonardo De Lorenzo’s Pan was composed in 1930. It is a very short piece, “almost without form” and was written to commemorate the archaeological discovery of ancient pan pipes in Greece in 1929 and Cairo in 1930.

Asked if the pieces represent a challenge to her in any way, Gilbert chuckles and says the challenge is “to learn to play them nicely”.

For more details about the concert and how to make a reservation, visit the coming events page for December of Roubi L’Roubi.

Espaces Arts & Objets Swiss Art Gallery