Flutist Donna Hangen performs Coursing Through the Still Green

Flutist Donna Hangen performs Coursing Through the Still Green,  inspired by a poem by Wang Wei, the 8th-century Chinese poet and painter on the Fifth Annual International Music by Women Festival. You can hear it online here. This piece grew from discussion at a National Flute Association conference with composer Timothy Clark and a number of flutists about the lack of flute music composed for high school and college students who wanted more adventuresome music than their usual fare that was not extremely virtuosic, but were having trouble finding it. Timothy and I contacted a number of other composers, including Ann Callaway, Joseph Koykkar and Mark Winges, and this resulted in volume The American Flute, published by Subito Music. As a flutist in my earlier years, I have composed a large variety of flute pieces, from solos such as Fasting Heart to music for flute and piano, including Gabriel”s Wing, to electroacoustic music, such as shatin Kairos to my flute concerto Ruah. It is an instrument of wonderfully diverse voices and I continue to enjoy exploring them.