Flutist Lindsey Goodman is known throughout North America as a soloist, recording artist, chamber collaborator, orchestral musician, educator, and clinician. Early this month Navona Records presented her second album, RETURNING TO HEIGHTS UNSEEN, the follow up studio recording to 2016’s REACH THROUGH THE SKY. Lindsey is a budding composer’s dream: interpreting new music with impeccable style and tenacity.
Today, she is our featured artist in “The Inside Story,” a blog series exploring the inner workings and personalities of our artists. Read on to learn Lindsey’s traveling wish list…
What is your guilty pleasure?
As someone who spends a great deal of time on the road performing and teaching, my guilty pleasure is spending time at home! Working in my garden, experimenting in the kitchen, and running through my neighborhood all ground me in a way that nothing else can. Many of my happiest times at home center around quality time with my husband, enjoying homemade dinners on our porch, watching Netflix and movies, and the quiet routine of finishing long days with a good book and our cuddly Bichon Frise dog, Jack. The liner notes for RETURNING TO HEIGHTS UNSEEN acknowledge “my rock”, my husband Chris, who is a music educator, composer, and pilot. Our home life together is my sanctuary.
If you could do any job in the world and make a living at it, what would that be?
Though I feel exceedingly grateful that my vocation is my also avocation, I’m passionate about delicious, healthful eating and embrace a vegan lifestyle. When home, I’m in the kitchen every day whipping up gluten and (most of the time…) sugar free recipes. I especially love world cuisines, and enjoy cooking with Indian, Mexican, Asian, and Italian herbs and spices. In my own mind, I’m famous for my holiday cookies, and I also craft organic juices and smoothies for monthly juice cleanses.
The amazing raw restaurant and juice bar Mission Savvy of Charleston, West Virginia, which inspired my dietary revolution nearly five years ago, has since closed its doors. I often fantasize about becoming a vegan restauranteur, introducing others to how scrumptious and satisfying plant-based eating can be. If I ever open my own establishment, you can count on enjoying my buffalo chickpea pizza, authentic pad thai, banana-berry smoothie, and chocolate pistachio cookies. Until then, though, I’ll happily stick to the flute!
If you could spend creative time anywhere in the world, where would it be? And why?
Hi, I’m Lindsey… (Hi, Lindsey.) …and I’m a travel addict.
For many years, the top destination on my travel list has been China, and thanks to the PARMA China Concert Tour, I’ll spend September 2018 in that country performing with my trio, Leviathan. I can’t wait to see the metropolitan cities, the landscapes of the countryside, the history-steeped sites, and, of course, sample all of the food! I’m also looking forward to learning Mandarin phrases, exploring local fashion, and the experience of being a minority while sharing American-made living music with this astounding country.
Every two years, my husband and I take a (flute-free!) international vacation. Past locations have included Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. Other top destinations on my travel wish-list include India, New Zealand, Korea, Italy, Vienna, Prague, and Budapest.
What was your favorite musical moment on the album?
It may sound like a cop-out, but my favorite piece is always the piece I’m currently playing. That means that while recording, editing, and mastering RETURNING TO HEIGHTS UNSEEN, I was always working on one of my eight favorite pieces – what a treat!
What does this album mean to you personally?
Releasing my debut album REACH THROUGH THE SKY in 2016 was a mountain-top moment for me. At 14, I recorded “Lindsey Goodman: In Recital” on a hand-held tape deck and dubbed copies on my boom box as presents for my family. Tracks included the Chaminade Concertino, Brian Boru’s March, and selections from The Nutrcracker. To hold a commercially-produced CD in my hands made over two decades of dreams come true!
That album hadn’t even been released, and I was already dreaming of it! I fell in love with every aspect of making an album, from laying down takes in the recording studio to long hours under headphones polishing tracks, sharing the finished product on the radio to hearing listeners’ experiences with the music. In the three years it took to make my first album, I’d already commissioned enough new music to fill a second – thus RETURNING TO HEIGHTS UNSEEN was born!
This album is especially meaningful to me, though, thanks to the 135 donors who lovingly crowdfunded the project. Thanks to their belief in this music, I have never felt more supported as an artist, so this is their album!
Is there a specific feeling you want listeners to tune into when hearing your work?
The album is comprised of new music for the flute, written for me by American composers from 2004 and beyond. With the exception of my mentor, David Stock, who passed in 2015, each composer on the album is a living personal friend who collaborated with me on these wonderful pieces. Even though I do love Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, they never return my texts or retweet me. I prefer composers who I can go out for cocktails with.
These works express the world out our windows in 2018. One aspect of that is the inclusion of technology for many of the pieces. With so many of us tied to our devices and using tech in every sector of our lives, it only make sense to integrate technology into our art-making to paint a vivid picture of 21st-century humanity.
On the flip side, the flute is one of the most ancient and organic instruments. I hope that, by pairing it with living creators and technology, listeners will hear elements that speak to them personally about today’s unique human condition.
“The visible breath, artificial and serene, of inspiration returning to heights unseen.” – Stéphane Mallarmé
RETURNING TO HEIGHTS UNSEEN is now available through Navona Records for streaming or purchase. Click here to explore this new album.
Flutist Lindsey Goodman is a soloist, recording artist, chamber collaborator, orchestral musician, educator, and clinician whose “palette of tone colors includes cool silver, warm chocolate, the bright colors of a sunrise, and the deep blue of midnight.” (The Flutist Quarterly) Renowned for her “energy and artistry, conveying her exuberance and creativity” (Pittsburgh in the Round), Lindsey has performed solo and chamber concerts, taught masterclasses, and given presentations at countless series, festivals, and universities. Performances “played with conviction” (New York Times) have been heard across three continents, including at Carnegie Hall, Eastman School of Music, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Google headquarters, University of Cincinnati College’s Conservatory of Music, several National and Canadian Flute Association conventions, across China, and on the Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone podcast.
