Grand Rapids-based flutist-guitarist duo Folias Duo — Carmen Maret and Andrew Bergeron — will visit Kalamazoo Sunday, Apr 19 at 3 p.m. for a free concert at Milwood United Methodist Church. Speaking with Cara Lieurance, the couple previews their ambitious new Great Lakes Suite and a packed touring season ahead.
The centerpiece of Sunday's program is the complete Great Lakes Suite, a five-movement work three years in the making, with each movement reflecting the character and scale of one of the Great Lakes. Bergeron, who composed the suite, says the largest movement — Lake Superior — runs about 13 minutes and features Maret on three different flutes. The Lake Huron movement unfolds as a kind of narrative: a solitary boat ride, a chance discovery of an island party, and a quiet return to the water, with all the musical material from earlier sections woven back in by the end.
The album, recorded at Octavia Audio in Mount Vernon, New York, is set for official release on August 14, with a Kickstarter campaign offering pre-release copies on CD and vinyl — the duo's first vinyl release. Maret describes the recording as deliberately untouched: "Minimal reverb — it really just captures the raw sound."
Also on Sunday's program is Maret's new piece Enblaze the Butterflies, inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem and driven by bluegrass influences. "It's a major key, happy piece," Bergeron says, "which isn't what we normally write in."
Maret will perform on an array of instruments, including a three-hole bamboo tambin flute she acquired in Guinea and studied with the principal flutist of Le Ballet Africain. The duo also performs an arrangement of Astor Piazzolla's Esqualo and their last album's centerpiece, Heart Dance.
A West Coast tour of 16 concerts follows in May, and later this summer they'll tour the East Coast, usually staying in campgrounds and enjoying the outdoors. About their hard-to-define niche: "We don't have a map," Bergeron says of their creative path, "and it's kind of nerve-wracking, but it's also great."
Sunday's concert is free and open to the public.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
