Flute Studio Lab

artistic platform by Hélène Navasse

Exploring the expressive possibilities of the flute family through
performance, collaboration and artistic research.

Flute Studio Lab workshop with young composers and performers

What is Flute Studio Lab?

Flute Studio Lab is an artistic platform dedicated to the flute family in contemporary music. It brings together performance, recording, composer collaboration and workshops around one central idea: that each member of the flute family possesses its own acoustic identity and artistic potential.

Through recordings, performances and collaborative projects, the Studio Lab explores how musical material changes as it moves between piccolo, C flute, alto flute and bass flute, creating new perspectives for performers, composers and audiences.

The Studio Lab connects artistic creation, instrumental knowledge and public dissemination through recordings, workshops and digital resources.

Current Projects

Current Project

Steve Reich – Vermont Counterpoint

A professional recording project exploring piccolo, C flute and alto flute as distinct musical identities within Reich’s layered structure.

One performer, eleven prerecorded voices and a live solo part: the flute family heard as a field of individual instrumental personalities.

The recording will also function as a tape version for future live performances.

Future Project

Adrianna Kubica-Cypek – Music for 4 Flutes

A future recording project focusing on ensemble identity, acoustic multiplicity and four equal flute voices.

Where Reich creates an ensemble through one performer and recorded layers, this work explores the flute ensemble as a live acoustic organism.

Artistic Practice

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Recording & Performance

Development of recording and performance projects where the flute family becomes a structural and expressive field.

Studio work, live performance and listening-based research are treated as interconnected parts of the same artistic process.

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Composer Collaboration

Dialogue with composers around sound, notation, instrumental identity and the practical reality of performance.

Performer-based knowledge can inform new writing for piccolo, C flute, alto flute and bass flute.

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Workshops

Hands-on workshops for composers, performers, conservatories and festivals, combining listening, experimentation and live demonstration.

Workshops focus on the acoustic and expressive reality of the flute family beyond notation.

Workshop Practice

Flute Studio Lab workshop with young composers

Composer Workshops

Flute Studio Lab workshops create a practical space where composers can hear, question and test instrumental ideas in direct dialogue with performers.

Workshops combine live performance, score discussion, demonstrations of the flute family and practical exploration of extended techniques. Rather than presenting fixed solutions, they invite composers to develop ideas through listening, experimentation and dialogue.

The workshop format connects compositional imagination with the physical, acoustic and expressive reality of the instrument.

Studio Lab Episodes

Research in Performance

Flute Studio Lab is shared through a growing series of short performance studies published online.

These episodes are not conceived as promotional videos, but as part of the artistic work itself. They make the research visible and audible by showing how musical material behaves in real playing situations.

Each episode focuses on one concrete aspect of instrumental behaviour — register, timbre, air, resistance, resonance or extended technique — and follows how it changes across the flute family.

The series is aimed at composers, performers and listeners interested in the practical and artistic reality of contemporary flute sound.

Areas of Exploration

Flute Family Acoustics

Exploring how identical musical gestures behave differently across piccolo, C flute, alto flute and bass flute.

Each instrument is approached not merely as a register, but as a distinct acoustic body with its own colour, resistance and expressive behaviour.

Extended Techniques

Exploring how contemporary flute techniques behave differently across the instruments of the flute family.

Air noise, multiphonics, register shifts and timbral instability are approached as musical material rather than special effects.

A Workshop in Three Moments

Young composers listening during Flute Studio Lab workshop

Listening and discussion with young composers.

Demonstration of bass flute during Flute Studio Lab workshop

Instrument demonstration across the flute family.

Flute Studio Lab workshop with pianist and composers

Dialogue between composition, performance and sound.

Resources

Composer Studies

Flute Studio Lab develops short practical studies for composers, focusing on sound behaviour, register, timbre and extended techniques.

Each study begins from a concrete musical gesture and follows how it changes when transferred between instruments. The goal is to make instrumental behaviour audible, practical and artistically useful.

These studies are conceived as listening-based tools for composition, rooted in the physical and acoustic reality of performance.

Future Directions

Long-Term Development

Flute Studio Lab will continue to develop as a platform for recordings, performances, workshops, composer collaborations and future commissions connected to the flute family.

The long-term vision is to create a body of work where contemporary repertoire, performer knowledge, instrumental acoustics and artistic research inform one another.

The flute family is not treated as a fixed category, but as an evolving artistic field.