A Love Flute in City Hall

North American Love Flute, Improv

Well, it is a big day here in Canada, as today’s news has been a long time in the making: the top levels of our government fully acknowledged the systematic removal of earlier generations of Canada’s First Nation peoples from their indigenous communities. Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologized for the ’sad chapter’ of Residential Boarding Schools that provided the setting for this appalling aspect of our country’s - and indeed our continent’s - collective history.

Some would say that this apology comes way too late; however, as was pointed out by one of the many First Nations leaders who attended, it potentially serves as a new beginning for fully healing racial and cultural divides of the past.

Before arriving in San Francisco, the first historic landmark that I set my sights on playing in was the massive San Francisco City Hall and it failed to disappoint.

Perhaps intuitively I chose to play on my North American Love Flute, one of the most expressive flutes in my collection. Having passed through the X-ray security check with my sachel of music, flutes and recording gear, I was blown away - who wouldn’t be?! - by this incredible marble interior. Before long I explored up these grand stairs and found a discreet location from which to sound the extraordinary acoustics.

There’s more to this story that will emerge in subsequent posts!