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1. Describe your musical upbringing and how you came to play the flute. J.B.- I come from a musical family, my mother was—still is—a concert pianist, and while the children—there were six of us in the family—were raised, she placed the playpen right next to her as she practiced. She’d be practicing many, many hours a day, and as soon as we’d start to fuss she’d rock the playpen a bit and then go back to it! We were completely happy. My mother and father loved string and piano chamber music. We had many evenings in our home where the playing would go on until the small hours. So music was in my bones and my body and brain before I can remember having a conscious thought, but I was slow to find the flute. I started with the piano, which was a disaster. I was very impatient. I heard my mother’s magnificent playing for all those years—Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Scarlatti, etc. My beginning attempts simply weren’t satisfying to me. I was too anxious to get on to something that sounded more like what she was doing! Then I started on the violin, but also was not good because my fingers were not suited to it. I didn’t like the feeling. Same with the cello, and it was by pure chance that I happened to see, at public high school, a woman come through with a woodwind quintet who played the flute. The woodwinds were a whole new world to me. I saw this woman with this gorgeous flute, and the sound just grabbed my heart. “That’s for me,” I thought, “I like the way it looks, I like the way it sounds,” and when I got my little rented flute I realized that I liked the way it felt. I liked the song in me that was able to be expressed through the breath. So with the flute I just fell in love. I started when I was nine, and by the time I was fourteen I knew I wanted to play the flute professionally. I went to the Interlochen Arts Academy, then to the Juilliard School where I studied with Julius Baker who was my ideal of a flute player. Those were great years. 
2. How did you win your first position in a orchestra?J.B.- In my last year at Julliard I thought, “I’d better take an audition.” I’d been working on orchestral repertoire all along. I didn’t mention to Julius Baker that I was going to do it. I made a reservation and went up to Montreal which had a first flute opening and took that audition. I was totally free, totally relaxed, I had no expectation of getting the job, it was the furthest thing from my mind—this was part of my education, I thought. I got the job. That’s when the hard work began—where I really started to educate myself. Those were tremendous learning years for me. The orchestra became my teacher, my own ear became my guide. 3. Where did your career take you after Montreal? J.B.- After nine years in Montreal I auditioned for the Toronto Symphony; Andrew Davis was Music Director at the time. That was a difficult audition for me because I had a reputation, I was older and hadn’t taken an audition in nine years. After all, it was only my second orchestral audition. Of my three auditions, Toronto was the most difficult. The New York Philharmonic was much easier because I learned how to prepare mentally and physically for the whole experience. 4. When you got the job in the Philharmonic, was it a great thrill to be back in New York? J.B.- Yes, I was coming home. When I was a student in New York there were no women in the Philharmonic so I didn’t even dream of the possibility. I must admit, when I first got into the Philharmonic I was so overwhelmed, I could hardly play! To be playing in this great orchestra, the orchestra where I sat in the hall as a student and looked at my teacher. Even coming into the Philharmonic in my thirties, I was still learning how I had to handle things. I had to realize I defined that position now. Somehow I felt, sitting in that position where my teacher had been, in the great New York Philharmonic, that I wasn’t good enough—I had to be so much more. Of course you can’t be more than you are. As soon as I could settle back into feeling, “This is it, it’s me, if they don’t like it I imagine they’ll let me know,” then I was fine. 
5. Have you always made time for teaching?J.B.- Yes, teaching is my passion. I am currently on faculty of the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and Carnegie Mellon University. I think when I was younger the performing was what meant the most to me. As you get older there’s this great desire to give, and to leave part of what you’ve learned behind. I try to bring all the students together because I love to have warm feelings between colleagues so that they can help each other. It’s a tremendously important resource. I learned a great deal from my teacher, he was fantastic; but I also learned from my colleagues—they taught me so much. There is an open exchange, and you feel close to each other in a healthy flute class. 6. How have you incorporated your orchestral experience into your teaching? J.B.- My mission, through my career, has been to help students realize that this is not only an obligation, but a joy, to learn this music from the bottom. For example, to start to just listen to a recording of Shéhérazade, without listening to the flute part. Just listen to the piece, read about the piece, and then graduate to the point where you are concentrating more on the flute part, and then how the flute part relates, and then practicing the more difficult solos. This is a process that should take a great deal of time and care and love. It takes many years and can’t be crammed. An equal partner in this is developing as a soloist. The other half of this personality will be the person who is performing in recitals, masterclasses, competitions, Prokofiev, Khatchaturian, Ibert, all these pieces, because that makes you a total performer, and in order to sit in a orchestra you have to be a soloist as a wind player. If you can stand up and play the Nielsen concerto you can play Daphnis et Chloé in an orchestra and it is not a big deal, but you’ve got to have that part of your personality very well developed. 7. What advice do you give to your students about auditions? 
J.B.- I believe an audition can be a glorious experience. The orchestral
audition is a singular experience in a musician’s life because
there is no other time when you come on stage alone, to play this
fabulous music without anybody getting in your way. There are no
problems with balance or intonation. There is no conductor; it’s
your interpretation of the Debussy, it’s your interpretation of
Brahms fourth or Beethoven third—what a great freedom. We should never
forget to let inspiration be their guide, or performances will become
mere athletic events. I think to bring into an audition the idea of
maintaining a perfect standard crushes the creative side of what
you’re trying to do. You are indeed in the audition trying to
seduce this jury to hearing something that goes beyond technical
accuracy, that reaches levels of inspiration. I would want a jury to
hear not the player but the music. The music is so great, and if you do
a great audition the committee will, I think, be mostly just taken away
with the beauty of the music. They realize, “My gosh! This person
brought me into Brahms, or Debussy, I want to sit by this person.”
If you’re ready and you have all this experience and background
behind you, you can just fly, play this music and have a great time, and
maybe even get the job! |