From an earlier workshop

Overtone Flute Workshop

When: May 4rth, 2024. 10am.
Where: Intelligent Instruments Lab @ Veröld - Hús Vigdísar. [map]
Who: Everyone welcome, but registration required!

The oldest musical instruments we know of are bone flutes from ca 40.000 years ago. The flute is an instrument that exists in most cultures and we find them in mythology and fine art in all periods. It is an instrument of the human breath, of the psyche, highly expressive and personal. But how are flutes made? How do they work?

You are invited to take part in a workshop that will demonstrate a simple process of making an overtone flute. These flutes are played in many parts of the world, from Scandinavia to East Africa, as are useful for understanding the overtone series. The making process is simple and should take under an hour. We will make two instruments each one for experimentation in the workshop and one for a collective performance.

For this workshop we seek a diverse group of people from a broad background, and that means you if you are interested in flutes and flute making. We hope to involve composers, performers, amateurs, designers, enthusiasts or people interested in acoustics and the physics of instruments. We will explore the potential of collective music making with these instruments. No previous experience in instrument making or flute playing is required for the workshop.

The workshop is in two parts: acoustic flutes and intelligent flutes. The first part of the workshop involves making your own flute and learn to play it. After lunch we will explore how to add electronics and do further experimentation with the flute. Both workshops will last approximately 3 hours.

The workshop leader will be Jan Hendrickse together with members of the Intelligent Instruments Lab.

Jan Hendrickse

Jan is a performer, composer, researcher and educator. His doctoral research examines epistemic models adopted in creative practice and use of technology. His creative practice is often situated somewhere between instrument-making, performing and composing.

He is trained both as a western Classical flute player, but has also studied several other flute traditions including Turkish Ney, Chinese Xiao and Dizi as well as Rajasthani Satara and Alghoza. He works both as a contemporary artist and musician, receiving commissions for concert performances, installation works and dance scores, as well as working as a performer and recording artist. He has performed with artists from electronic and freely-improvised musics, such as Mark Fell, Rian Treanor and David Toop, as well as featuring regularly as a soloist on traditional instruments for major film scores.

Jan teaches socially-engaged practice and practice-based research at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and has also led creative projects in communities around the world including Gambia, Thailand, Germany and Gaza and the West Bank. He is experienced in facilitating conversations and interviews and has chaired discussions with the musicologist Georgina Born and artists Mark Fell, Michael Gordon and CC Hennix, amongst others. He has recently been a visiting lecturer at ZKM in Karlsruhe as well as Trinity Laban in London.

Jan’s website

Workshop Registration

Please fill in the following form to apply for the workshop. We aim to invite 15 people to the workshop and we will select people based on considerations of diversity and plurality of backgrounds.

From an earlier workshop

From an earlier workshop

The ii lab Organium