Jewel City Flute Choir. Photo courtesy The Lanterman Historical Museum Foundation
The Lanterman Historical Museum Foundation will once again host the locally renowned “Jewel City Flute Choir” for their annual Fall concert in the Lanterman House Ballroom on Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. The flute choir performs under the direction of Francine Pancost, a local conductor and musician who has an extensive background in music.
The roots of the flute choir go back some years ago when Francine was referred to the LA Music Center by a colleague and shortly thereafter hired to lead their flute choir. Originally the center had between 6-8 adults who wanted to get back into performing. However, shortly after the group was formed they lost funding and Francine was requested to put together a flute choir which became known as the Jewel City Flute Choir. She reports that the group has grown in size and has between 15-22 members, depending on their work and travel schedules. Several of the members were music majors who changed careers and decided to continue performing professionally.
In order for Francine to select the music for her concerts, she attends the yearly National Flute Convention where she has the opportunity to hear a variety of genres of music from jazz to classical to extended techniques. Unlike many other flute choirs, the Jewel City Flute Choir plays music originally written for the flute choir. Most of the music she selects is from the past 1-5 years. This year three of the pieces being performed are from 2016. In addition, they will be performing six original compositions for the flute ensemble and one piece arranged from the first Canadian Christmas carol, a very haunting piece of music.
Francine continues to maintain relations with local composers in order to provide the ultimate concert experience. She reports that she performed a work at a Lanterman concert last year by a composer named Charles Fernandez who went on to win the “Best New Flute Choir Composition” award for the National Flute Association. “We’ve done two premieres here at the Lanterman House that have never been performed by anyone; in addition we did another premiere two years ago by Michael Kibbe. We’re very much into working with and supporting local composers,” said Pancost.
Francine and her choir enjoy performing at Lanterman House each and every time they are invited. “This is our favorite place to come to where we happen to have a lot of repeat audience members, which is great,” says Pancost.
The Lanterman House is located at 4420 Encinas Drive in the city of La Cañada Flintridge. For more information about the concert please visit lantermanfoundation.org.
