Forty-five years ago, flutists from the professional orchestras in the Twin Cities plus students, teachers, freelancers and people who just love the flute got together. Their aim was simple: to create a meeting place for flute-related activities and enrich the community. 

Today, UMFA, the Upper Midwest Flute Association, presents an annual festival, commissions new music, holds competitions, passes out scholarships and puts on concerts with local talent often playing one of the cool instruments the organization owns from the flute family – alto, bass, even contrabass flute. 

Each year at the Mall of America, hundreds of flutists gather for a marathon concert to help raise money for scholarships and to collect gently-used instruments. For eight hours it’s one flute solo, duo, ensemble and band after another, the only rules that you’re ready to play and you'll chip in twenty-five bucks for the cause. 

In January of 1979 a small group of motivated flutists from the Twin Cities formed an association which would bring flutists of all levels together for concerts, workshops and educational programs. The ‘Upper Midwest Flute Association’ – or UMFA – is entirely volunteer-run and is set up so flutists can  get to know each other, work together, network, share ideas and build life-long friendships. 

They do this through a very active schedule of concerts, flute choir showcases, lectures, competitions, as well as masterclasses given by world renown artists at the annual flute fest. As well, each year at the Mall of America, hundreds of flutists gather for a marathon concert to help raise money for scholarships and to collect gently-used instruments. 

Open to all ages and abilities, UMFA is a Minnesota organization that prides itself on supporting each other and sharing knowledge – as well as a well appointed music library and set of instruments from the flute family. KFAI reporter Alison Young shares this story.

So, 100 flutists walk into a room...

Tethys part II

Airy Spirits

This beat features a funky bass and vibrant brass instruments, perfect for energizing any scene.

Capturing the moment when rest is called for. 

Only Brass from Nocturnal Gestures at the Crow Hill Company.

We Rest

It’s a funky hip-hop track that highlights the beauty of brass instruments.

GAISEN

As part of a new series of playlists and mixes from artists performing at the festival, Rewire is proud to present a curated mix by Lukas De Clerck. 

The Brussels-based composer, musician, and artist Lukas De Clerck deals with ancient sonic tools – particularly, he specialises in the aulos, a near-extinct double-reeded Greco-Roman instrument. His self-taught experiments breathe new air, literally, into aulos, such as in his new album The Telescopic Aulos of Atlas (2024) which takes its name from an experimental reimagining of the aulos sculpted by De Clerck. Ahead of De Clerck’s upcoming performance at Rewire 2025, Rewire invited him to prepare a mix of wind instrument music.

De Clerck says of the mix:
“A wind-exclusive mix for the adventurous ear. Noise, Pulse, Drone. A focus on contemporary practices around inventing, reshaping or re-interpreting wind instruments into uncharted territories.”

MARIA BERTEL - ROTUNDITY (Monophonic, Relative Pitch Records, 2024)
JOHN MCCOWEN - HOSKIN (Models of Duration, Dinzu Artefacts/Astral Spirits, 2022)
ELLEN ARKBRO - SCULPTURE I (Sounds while waiting, W.25th, 2023)
PANCRACE - KRUMMHORN (The Fluid Hammer, Penultimate Press, 2019)
JOHN BUTCHER - FAR FLUNG (The Very Fabric, hitorri, 2023)
ANTHONY PATERAS - PALIMPSET GEOMETRY (Two Solos, Futura Resistenza,2023)
SHOLTO DOBIE - AMONG INTERSECTING BREATHS (23, Infant Tree, 2024)
HANS VAN KOOLWIJK - TREK! (Bambuso sonoro, Pan Records, 1999)
JULES REIDY, ZINC & COPPER - ECHOES  (Instants & Their Echoes, Hospital Hill, 2024)
LISE BARKAS - CINQ PONTS (Cinq Ponts, INSUB.records, 2024)
TONGUE DEPRESSOR - LIVE AT CAFE OTO 21/01/2023 (Live At Café Oto, self released, 2024)
MAKIKA- DISSONEDDAS IN SCALA (Tuttorotto - 01, tuttorotto 2020)
SARAH DAVACHI - RES SUB ROSA (The Head As Form​’​d In The Crier​’​s Choir, Late Music, 2024)
ELIANE RADIGUE - OCCAM III (pour Birbyné) (par Carole Robinson) (Occam Ocean 1, Shiiin, 2017)

Carried on the wind with Lukas De Clerck, a mix

Just a quick little Intro that happened one random Friday evening.

Entrée [quick demo]

Do you know that feeling when you hear a word or concept for the first time, and you think to yourself, “… How is it possible that this word has passed me by? I’ve lived exactly where this word lives, and yet we’ve never crossed paths! I could have used this word so many times; I can hardly believe it’s been around all this time!”?

That’s what happened to me with the term or principle of salutogenesis. Incredible. Simply incredible.

In my life, it would have made so much sense for me to encounter this word, and how I stumbled upon it only makes it even better. A friend of mine released a track and included the hashtags #Salsa and #Psy. Because I thought the genre fusion was so brilliant, I wanted to research whether more of it could be found online—and lo and behold. SALSA is short for salutogenesis, and the Internet inerpreted “Psy” as “psychology.”

BOOM BADABÄNG BING POW, and now we're here… With a track that completely threw my entire sense of coherence into chaos, because I locked myself in a room and spent days and nights creating nothing but this track.

AIAIAI
"Salutogenic Subjective Work Analysis"... you are welcome xD

Enjoy all the BUM KAT KAT BU TE BUM! <3

SALUTOGENISIS

Baked Brothers - Uroczysko 2024 Liveset



c r e a t e   a n d   r e f l e c t

Spotify/Conradusz
Apple Music/Conradusz

Bansuri flute Player 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michal.bansuri/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@michal.bansuri

🇯🇵 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓭𝓾𝓬𝓮𝓻

MinneCulture is KFAI’s award-winning audio storytelling program. We produce audio documentaries exploring Minnesota’s art, culture, and history — stories about musical sensations, small town heroes, cultural icons, local lore, and everything in between.

Thank you for listening to my music!!!  My name is Eleri and I'm a composer living on the Isle of Man, a small island in the Irish Sea.

I love to make music that creates moments of calm and also to help unwind ahead of sleep! The piano is my go to instrument for this.

My compositions are neo-classical, and a fusion of electronic and orchestral. Conveying vast soundscapes, compositions are multi-textured and layered to create ambience and timelessness.

Music is a joy to make, and I hope you will enjoy my creations!
Eleri

Examples of work: 
Youtube link for music videos to complement the music - https://youtube.com/@Elerimakesmusic

Radio Plays:
BBC Radio 3 InTune in 2021 
BBC Radio Lancashire Introducing in 2022, 2023, 2024
BBC Sleeping Forecast 2022, 2023, 2024
BBC Piano Focus 2024
BBC Soundwaves 2024
BBC 3 Unwind 2024, 2025


Commissioned by the IOM Arts Council for music for a local short film, "Sollys". Film premiered on 23 March 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izE8bAoFNB0

Music for Manx Wildlife Trust's short film 'Wildlife Remembered' Premiered in April 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjHNTuOdg8M

"Sundays", appears on the 2021 Piano day playlist by Nils Frahm.
My arrangement of the "Manx National Anthem" appears on the Manx Music playlist by Culture Vannin.

Currently working on:
 - A commission for our local Manx Youth Orchestra

I also create content for my two YouTube channels: @elerimakesmusic and @momentofcalmforyou

International festival for adventurous music.
Rewire 2023, 4-7 April 2024.

New tracks tagged #wind instruments