Flutist Zara Lawler in Residency With UW Department of Music Feb. 11-13

Zara Lawler, a Julliard School-trained flutist, dancer and teacher, will serve a three-day residency in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Music Sunday-Tuesday, Feb. 11-13.

Lawler, also known as “The Flute on Its Feet,” will give a free public performance at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall. The concert will feature standard and modern flute and piano repertoire, and choreographed versions of solo pieces for flute.

Other events during Lawler’s residency include an open rehearsal at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, in the Performing Arts concert hall; a workshop titled “Creative Fundraising for Musicians” at noon Monday, Feb. 12, in the Performing Arts lobby; and a second workshop titled “Movement for all Musicians,” at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, in the concert hall.

All events are free and open to the public and are sponsored by the Wyoming Excellence Fund.

Lawler is the original dancing flutist; her work has spawned a small cadre of flutists who work in a similar vein. She already was known for her unique combination of the two art forms when she created her choregraphed version of Berio’s “Sequenza,” a piece titled “Time Frame” in which she performs the “Sequenza” while dancing in and around a moving metal frame.

Her current work is more New York-centric, including a choreographed musical staging of works mentioned in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” and the first fully realized performance of an historical piece by New York City composer Ezra Laderman. The piece, written for legendary dancer/choreographer Jean Erdman and an unknown solo flutist, will premiere at UW.

Beyond her genre-defying performances, Lawler is first a teacher. She is Suzuki-certified and serves as a leading authority on learning extended techniques for flutists. Lawler also teaches an introductory version of dancing-while-playing to all instrumentalists, both as an art form and as a tool to connect more deeply with the rhythm and expression inherent in any music that students are playing.

As a freelance flutist based in New York, she also has vast experience booking and producing shows and funding her work through a variety of sources.

“Zara’s visit will be impactful to the entire Department of Music by teaching creativity and expression, physical awareness and control, and entrepreneurial skills, in addition to producing an entirely unique show like nothing our students have ever seen,” says Nicole Riner, a UW flute visiting assistant professor and sponsor for Lawler’s UW visit. “There is no other flute artist quite like Zara anywhere in the world.”

Lawler made her concerto debut with the Houston Symphony and her recital debut at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall. She has performed internationally and in the U.S., both as a soloist and with her flute and marimba duo Lawler + Fadoul.

Lawler’s solo show, “The Flute on its Feet,” was featured at the Orlando Fringe Festival in May 2019. For many years, Lawler has integrated dance and theater into her performances, with the innovative ensemble Tales & Scales, in collaboration with choreographer C. Neil Parsons, and in large-scale choreographies for flutes, including E Pluribus Flutum, Lawler’s work for 60 dancing flutists.

For more information about Lawler, visit www.zaralawler.com/ or her blog on practice techniques at www.thepracticenotebook.com.

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.