Julie McDonald's Flute Studio

Welcome Siri to the Studio! We’ve had so much fun and it has only been two lessons.
An honor for me be a part of your flute journey.🎶💕

Fall 2025 NOVA Annandale is in the books! Congrats to my students, Bill and Kenji, who performed their best juries yet! I am amazed at the growth from our first semester together to now. So much music!

Thank you everyone for an AMAZING, life-changing 2025 NFA Convention. I so appreciate all the time, patience, and mad organization skills it takes to bring us together as a flute community. ❤️

I have finally gotten to Chapter 5 in my dissertation about Charles Ives:
The Flute in the Music
This is the part I am enjoying the most writing about. Here are the works I will be covering, written for theater or chamber orchestra:

March No. 2 with “Son of a Gambolier”
Fugue in Four Keys on “The Shining Shore”
The Pond
The Unanswered Question
Set No. 1: ii. A Lecture
iv. Like A Sick Eagle
vi. Allegretto Sombreoso

Set No. 2: iii. The Last Reader

Tone Roads No. 1

Set No. 5: iv. Ann Street

Set No. 6 “From the Side Hill”:
i. Mists
ii. The Rainbow
iii. Afterglow
iv. Evening

Set No. 7 “Watercolors”, i. At Sea

The flute parts are not typical orchestral or chamber music parts, but vital nonetheless. This is what fascinates me the most about Ives’s music & what I will be writing about!

Completely floored by my NOVA students’ juries today! My third year of college teaching in the books and 33rd year overall.
Nothing brings me more joy than seeing my students grow and be expressive with the flute!

So proud I recorded Valerie Coleman’s Wish Sonatine for NFA’s Professional Flute Choir. Music fills my heart and gives me hope. It helps me overcome any obstacle. This is why I teach, to give back to my students what my teachers gave to me - a renewable source of strength and resilience.
Can’t wait to play with everyone in August!

No matter how badly I’m feeling physically or mentally, teaching always makes me feel better. Thank you, Kenji & Bill for your dedication & focus this week!
Bravo!

If I don’t really know a piece of music, I get tense and my mind just doesn’t work. So how do you really come to know music? Practicing it many ways, taking time to really learn it, not just hoping by magic it will come together in the end.
Only then can I play something with confidence, without tension, allowing myself the freedom to be expressive.

Back to work!
Until you've written a dissertation, it's hard to explain what it's like. I'm relieved to know I've found my process. There is an end coming soon!

Graduate Student Life 14-Day Writing Challenge - Spring 2025 - Graduate Student Life Would you like to make headway on your academic, professional, and/or personal writing? Are you trying to make progress on your thesis or dissertation or other writing project? If so, plan now to p...

So proud of my NOVA students Dylan, Bill, Matthew, & Kenji this fall semester.
Thank you for teaching me too!

Concert Sunday! So excited!

🎶 Santa called—he wants our setlist for the North Pole! 🎶 Join the National Concert Band of America for a festive afternoon of music that’s sure to make your spirits bright! 📅 Sunday, December 15 ⏰ 3:00 p.m. 📍 West Springfield High School 🎟️ Admission: FREE #HolidayConcert #LiveMusic #NationalConcertBand #FreeEvent #FestiveVibes #northernVA #springfieldva

Ever feel like you’re making zero progress? Me too. Be patient. It all boils down to tension and confidence. If you don’t really know something, if it doesn’t feel comfortable to play, tension will present itself. More patience = less tension. This is what Julianna Nickel meant when she would tell me to teach myself how I wanted a phrase to feel.
Thank you, Julianna!