“I would rather create my own exposure than hope that someone else’s rubs off on me.” New music flutist Robin Meiksins is constantly creating her own opportunities through her YouTube channel and the like. Learn all about how she does it on episode 6 of the Making Noise podcast.
Robin Meiksins is a freelance contemporary flutist focused on collaboration with living composers. While Chicago-based, she uses the Internet and online media to support and create collaboration, as well as more traditional means of performance.
In 2017, Robin completed her first year-long collaborative project, 365 Days of Flute. In this project she performed 138 works by living composers, as well as works from the established flute repertoire. Each day featured a different work or movement and each video was recorded and posted to YouTube the same day. In 2018, Robin launched the 52 Weeks of Flute Project. This project builds on the ideas of internet performance and collaboration from the 365 project. Each week, Robin works with a different living composer to workshop a submitted work, culminating in a performance on YouTube.
Robin has premiered over 100 works by living composers and has performed at SPLICE Institute, the SEAMUS national conference, Oh My Ears New Music Festival, and Frequency Festival. In 2018, she was a guest artist at University of Illinois for their first annual ’24-Hour Compose-a-thon.’ Robin was awarded the Mrs. Hong Pham Memorial Recognition Award for New Music Performance at Indiana University in 2016.
In 2013, Robin was the Ontario woodwind representative at the Federation of Canadian Music Festival’s National Competition, where she placed second overall. She has performed in master classes with Michael Hasel, Conor Nelsen, Jeanne Baxtresser, and Jeffery Khaner. In 2014, she was a recipient of the Kingsway Humber Foundation Scholarship. Robin was also a two-time recipient of the Musical Arts Society of Cleveland’s scholarship. Robin holds a masters degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where she studied with Kate Lukas and Thomas Robertello. Robin received a Bachelors of Music with Distinction from University of Toronto, having studied with Leslie Newman. Other notable teachers include Marisela Sager, Linda Miller and Joseph Juhos.
This is officially the first episode of the podcast where I got to sit down and talk with someone I have not personally met! I discovered Robin through her YouTube page when I was searching for certain flute techniques while writing Approaching Cyrrhus. After subscribing to her channel, I started following her on other social media and saw the frequency with which she posts content. So much of what she does is dedicated and in service to composers, and I could not think of a better reason to have her on.
Some of the things we discuss:
Creating long-term music projects for YouTube.
52 Weeks of Flute and 365 Days of Flute as a resource for composers.
“The biggest thing composers don’t get is performer feedback...”
Ralph Lewis’s “YouTube piece that uses the algorithm”
Things composers need to stop doing.
“Contemporary techniques for Composers” and “Contemporary Techniques 101.”
How to reach out to Robin and what NOT to say.
The validity of having a career on the internet.
When it comes to improvisation, “practice being uncomfortable.”