Ep. 34: Clare Southworth

*All Talking Classical podcasts formerly on SoundCloud redirected to Anchor.*  In this episode, we'll be talking to Clare Southworth. Clare enjoyed a distinguished career as a professional flautist and educator, teaching as a Professor at the UK conservatoires, specialist music schools and junior music colleges. She has now turned her attention to writing books on learning the flute, aimed at a variety of ages and abilities. She also co-hosts the Talking Flutes podcast, created in association with Trevor James Flutes. We discuss Clare's journey into music, her time studying at the Royal Northern College of Music and how this compared to today. This is especially the case in light of the current pandemic, where practising in isolation is somewhat different in comparison to previous years. Clare also shares some valuable advice on practising and teaching music, especially the notion that one should be teaching the person and not the instrument. Having been diagnosed with Ménière's disease, we talk about how to navigate a performer's identity especially when things do not always go to plan. Clare has successfully been able to channel this in new ways through a range of exciting projects. As we'll hear, they include her books, the Talking Flutes podcast and her continued teaching, not necessarily of flute performance but other topics such as career development, the art of practice and having a positive mental attitude. Many thanks to Clare for talking to me! Podcast published 24 July 2020; interview recorded 18 June 2020. Clare's website: claresouthworthflute.com Kickstart Flute: kickstartflute.com Talking Flutes: flute.podbean.com Music by audionautix.com. "Alla What (parody)," Creative Commons Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com. Used in full and edited forms for the podcast.