Today we’d like to introduce you to Marion Garver.
Hi Marion, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in Texas (Dallas-Ft Worth) and back then, music education in the schools was really great. I started playing the flute in 1980 at age 11. I went through the whole marching band years from 8th grade to 11th grade at the same school (West Mesquite) and then got into Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas for my senior year. There I had my first professional music gigs with the woodwind quintet, recording for Down Beat and we also made a video of Baroque pieces in period costumes. We also had a visit from contemporary American composer John Cage that spring. Our wind ensemble performed one of his pieces and I got to play alto flute for the first time. That performance started my obsession with lower flutes and sounds.
From there, I moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to live with my mother’s younger sister and her mother for community college and a year at University. I wasn’t interested in jazz at first, but Grant MacEwan’s program is top-notch. I really learned a lot and expanded my horizons. I also hosted a 20th Century classical music program at the U of Alberta’s campus radio station called Opus .357 from 1988 to 1990, where I hosted many local composers, both in the acoustic and electronic realm of Edmonton music. I also played with the J. Jonah Jamesons, a band made up of Theater Sports improv performers and got into electroacoustic music with composers Shawn Pinchbeck and Gene Kosowan. My CD recording Resonance (1995) is a collaboration with Shawn Pinchbeck that includes some acoustic compositions of my own.
In 1992, I moved to Valencia, California to study at California Institute of the Arts. I played in chamber ensembles, Balinese suling, new music, jazz, and improvised performances during my three years there. I studied with Rachel Rudich, Steve Kujala, and Paul Novros for flute, jazz flute, and jazz improvisation.
In 1995, I took a trip to Europe to meet Eva Kingma, Dutch flutemaker of many types of flutes, but specifically gorgeous alto and bass flutes at the time. I attended Flautissimo flute convention in Riva del Garda, Italy and saw many superstars of the classical flute world including Emmanuel Pahud, William Bennett, Michel Debost, Phillipe Bernold. The flutist who blew me away was Swiss flutist Matthias Ziegler, who performed on contrabass flute- my first sighting. I fell in love with that instrument.
In 1997, I started my Master of Arts in flute performance at UC San Diego with Jon Fonville. My Master’s thesis was on Kingma system (quartertone) flutes, and an analysis of a piece by Robert Erickson (UCSD composer and composition teacher) which described a chapter of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake through quartertones and other extended flute techniques. I completed my MA in 1999.
In 1999, Eva Kingma brought her first contrabass flute to show at the Atlanta National Flute Association convention and I started to help Eva in her booth so that I had a chance to play all of her lovely low flutes. That developed into my job as her assistant at flute conventions, some in Europe, but mostly the American conventions, where I would help players play her instruments and demonstrate her quartertone flutes. I would eventually own her alto and bass flutes, a contralto flute, and a contrabass flute all fitted with her Kingma-system. My contrabass flute is the only quartertone contrabass in the world.
While I don’t play microtonal music all the time, after my Master’s, I performed with Heavy Horses, a Jethro Tull tribute band, PocketSize Planet, a funk and Afro-Cuban band in the 2000s. In 2006, I started playing at the Eisner Awards afterparties at Comicon, a gig that I held until last year, when my boss, Jackie Estrada, retired from her hosting of the Eisner Awards. In 2005, I performed Save A Prayer with Duran Duran members Simon, Andy, and John at a radio station event during their Astronaut tour.
More recently, I have performed with San Diego punk rock founder Hector Penalosa at Beatles Fair 2024, the Violent Femmes in 2018 and 2026, with the Flutes de Salon flute quartet, and at Christ Lutheran Church, Pacific Beach, San Diego with my pianist friend John Mark Harris. I have also sat in with many projects on airgigs.com, and I regularly perform with the Song of the Angels Flute Orchestra from Los Angeles, and the Game Music Ensemble and Flute Choir at UCLA. I have a few pieces for contrabass and contralto flutes that I’ve commissioned by composers around the world.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Music is never stable. I studied technique diligently, but that led to issues with thoracic outlet syndrome in my left arm that used to turn my fingernails blue and numb my hand and fingers. At CalArts, I was living in the dorms when the Northridge Earthquake happened and we lost use of the entire building. Even though we were in tents, then portable trailers, rented buildings at Lockheed Martin, even classes at professor’s homes and the film history class had to be sourced from Blockbuster instead of our extensive library, that year ended up being very creative and many of the projects I had were successful.
As of late, finding private students has become more difficult, and with freelancer bills in California and other states, employers are less capable of hiring or funding as many musicians as usual. I take jobs as they come, but I depend on other sources of income, including my flute decoration business #flutehatsknits, audio transcribing, and other ways to put food on my table.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am primarily a flute player who specializes in low flutes (alto, bass, contralto, contrabass) in classical, jazz, improvisation, electroacoustic, rock, and many other styles. I do play piccolo on occasion. Most of my teaching is for regular flute, with people from ages 8 up to people returning to flute later in life.
I am known for playing very big flutes that look like boutique plumbing and for playing flute with Duran Duran and contrabass flute with the Violent Femmes.
I also make #flutehatsknits, which started as Santa-type hats for flutes in 2018, but I’m making little animals, flowers, and pop culture characters to sit on the ends of flutes. They are purely for joy, not any musical enhancement, aside from the theme of what you are playing. There are other makers of flute hats who crochet them. I am a much better knitter, so I stick to needles rather than a hook.
My low instruments set me apart by their size and the perception that audiences have that it takes a lot of air. It takes air, but the lower you go, the slower the air. I have learned a lot about how to use that air and how to slow it down, but also use support to make the air go farther.
I also started arranging ’80s songs for low flutes for reels back during Covid days. I am still making arrangements and post them to Facebook and Instagram. I used to post on TikTok, but quit that a few months ago because of data protection. I got recognized at Pappy & Harriet’s a few years ago because of a reel of a Pretenders song. That was fun!
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I met most of my mentors in person, so getting out there and being a part of the community helps. I met mine at flute conventions about 30 years ago. Also, being in college or art school helps to expand your network. My reels of ’80s songs help me. My website does sometimes get me students, but I need an upgrade on that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.contraflutist.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraflutist/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/megaflute
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@flutegrrlg
- Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/biz_info/fX2AJcPMzA8UMc-gpDCtdQ
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/marion-garver
