Endorsing Artists

Talking about woodwind players, we live in a time of both extremely high musical level & technical command in instrumental music. There are extraordinary flautists, phenomenal saxophonists, marvelous all-around woodwind players, amazing masters in flutes and woodwinds from different cultures of the world, and they all are absolutely powerful at what they have specialized in.

There are others that pursue more than one musical direction–beyond the traditional WWs doubling–while going after many of them as if they where their only activity. Case in point: Pedro Eustache. As a flautist alone, for example, he can “wear” the solo-recital, symphonic, jazz, pop, studio musician, Latin, world-music, and contemporary/avant-garde “hats” with profound stylistic appropriateness, changing from one to the other with effortless flexibility, in a natural way that is indeed–and without a doubt–extremely rare. If we add to this his musical knowledge & technical command in the ‘reeds’ [saxophones & bass clarinet]; world- music woodwinds [close to 600, from all six continents]; and wind synthesis [both analog & digital, and as a programmer & performer] we find a remarkable, deeply committed artist truly consumed by what he defines as “his Calling”.

It is not common-in our times of ‘doing-one-thing’-specialists–to find this sort of ‘musical pentathlonist’, someone that can go from sitting in a classical Symphony Orchestra, to playing a solo-flute recital, on to improvise over Jazz standards, performing in deep musical understanding from Bach, to ‘Charanga’, to electronicca & computer-based interactive music,to the South-American kena; going from the Armenian duduk to the Australian didgeridoo, to wind synthesizers; from Mozart to Coltrane, from Indian Ragas to traditional evangelical Hymns, from the traditional Cuban flute of José Fajardo to the endless flute & compositional world of Dr. James Newton, from the Brazilian genius composer & multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Paschoal to the Middle Eastern nay flutes, he studies and ‘digs’ them all, out of sheer admiration & profound respect. He not only studies their traditions, but also has done serious acoustics research with remarkable acousticans (like Dr. John Coltman & Dr. Peter Hoekje, Phd)– resulting in making more than 100 instruments –as well as many custom-modified mouthpieces & other especific components. These have resulted in unique instruments–thus, sonoriries–unavailable anywhere else in the world.

The pursuit–in a real, not superficially/simplistic way–of so many ‘different’ musical directions allowed him to achieve a ‘voice’ that is richly unique & personal, yet anchored by realistic humility. He knows that each one of them demands a lifetime of well focused, concentrated dedication, yet he keeps going after them with stubborn single-mindedness. In his own words he is “in the ‘business’ of following orders from Above”. Where others in his place would perhaps fall in the trap of self-glorification, Pedro straightforwardly acknowledges that the merit is due solely “to The One that gave me the gift”.

Quoting him still, he says: “God made me a musician to keep me humble for the rest of my life. How else could I be, after so many preceding great historic masters-geniuses, like J.S. Bach, J. Coltrane, L.V. Beethoven, Acharya Allaudin Khan, Ch. Parker, J. Brahms, Pndt. Ravy Shankar, W.A. Mozart, N. Banerjee, Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix, Pndt. Hariprasad Chaurassia, Etc.?”

• We could say, perhaps, that Pedro embodies–more than the flautist of the 21st. century–the creative multi-directional Woodwinds-soloist of the new millennium!

• In Pedro’s own words: “I simply hope–and I really work hard at this, through ‘active submission’–that someday, whenever I see my Creator I would be able to give Him an answer worthy of the ‘package-of- grace’ he entrusted me with.”