The Mind Over Finger Podcast 052 Demarre McGill: The Master Keys - Discipline, Spirit, Energy, Beauty & Patience
In this week’s episode, Demarre McGill, principal flute with the Seattle Symphony, discusses the building blocks of efficient and mental practice: having discipline, nurturing energy, focusing on beauty, and applying patience in our approach.
Demarre also elaborates on the importance of:
- The “starter teachers” and the diverse support system a young musician needs to blossom
- Combining discipline, spirit, and energy
- Being an excellent colleague
- Patience in slow practice, and how it helps us learn faster
- Finding the soul of the music & focusing on beauty
- Providing musical context to fix technical issues
- Focusing on the music to get in the right headspace for a performance
- Confronting the things we are not comfortable with in preparation for performances
- Contributing to your community
- Not giving up in the face of rejection
- Staying hungry in order to grow
The Mind Over Finger Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtQSB1IVNJ4a2afT1iUtSfA/videos
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MORE ABOUT DEMARRE:
Website: https://www.demarremcgill.com/
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVTwhPRg3lnSTSWxTROWz2w
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/demarremcgillflute/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demarremcgill/
The Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth - Learning with the Masters featuring DSO flutist Demarre McGill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK_dsbJsw0o
Demarre McGill has gained international recognition as a soloist, recitalist, chamber and orchestral musician. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, he has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Seattle, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Grant Park, San Diego and Baltimore symphony orchestras and, at age 15, the Chicago Symphony.
Now principal flute of the Seattle Symphony, he previously served as principal flute of the Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. He recently served as acting principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and earlier with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
As an educator, Demarre has performed, coached and presented master classes in South Africa, Korea, Japan, Quebec and throughout the United States. With his brother Anthony, he was a speaker and performer at the 2018 League of American Orchestras Conference. He has also served on the faculties of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States, the National Orchestral Institute (NOI) at the University of Maryland, the Orford Music Festival, and participated in Summerfests at the Curtis Institute of Music. In August of 2019, he was named Associate Professor of Flute at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and is an artist-faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School.
A founding member of The Myriad Trio, and former member of Chamber Music Society Two, Demarre has participated in the Santa Fe, Marlboro, Seattle and Stellenbosch chamber music festivals, to name a few. He is the co-founder of The Art of Élan and, along with clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Michael McHale, founded the McGill/McHale Trio in 2014. Their first CD, "Portraits," released in August 2017, has received rave reviews, as has "Winged Creatures," his recording with Anthony McGill and the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. In 2019-20 the McGill/McHale Trio performs at New York City's 92nd Street Y, as well as in Washington D.C. and on chamber music series throughout the Midwest.
Media credits include appearances on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center, A & E Network's The Gifted Ones, NBC's Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and, with his brother Anthony when they were teenagers, on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
A native of Chicago, Demarre McGill began studying the flute at age 7 and attended the Merit School of Music. In the years that followed, until he left Chicago, he studied with Susan Levitin. Demarre received his bachelor’s degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and a Master's degree at The Juilliard School.
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THANK YOU:
Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show’s musical theme! Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson.
Also a HUGE thank you to my fantastic producer, Bella Kelly!
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