Meet Elizabeth McNutt | flutist and music director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elizabeth McNutt and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elizabeth, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
My father often said, “No guts, no glory!” Risk is essential in creating new art and pushing forward one’s artistic practice. I enjoy taking on new challenges, especially those that challenge my creativity, problem solving skills, and technique. I call myself an “extreme flutist” because my career path and artistic work is quite different than a typical “classical” flutist; the music I love pushes boundaries of virtuosity and expression. In creating new works that haven’t been played or heard before, I face new physical and interpretative provocations. I can’t rely on other people’s versions on recordings, I must instead commit to finding my own way forward. I don’t know if the audience or the composer will my performance, but I persevere.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Career paths are rarely linear. I started out aiming to be an orchestral flutist, but my path took many unexpected turns. I advise my students to stay open to new opportunities and be willing to try new things. I am most proud of creating the new music series Sounds Modern, in which I curate concerts connected to visual art. We’ve been presenting concerts since 2007 at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth. Our next concert is April 15 at 2 pm!
Building an artistic career is probably not easy for anyone. During my education, I was told hard work, practicing, discipline, developing one’s skills as a musician, were all that was necessary for success, which I now believe is incomplete. Imagination, risk-taking, building community, connections, practicality, and entrepreneurship are all necessary for developing a successful artistic career. Artistic experimentation, performing new ways in new venues, being creative about projects, and (perhaps most importantly) creating my own opportunities has been crucially important for me. My artistic work largely defies categorization, which I embrace — I call myself a hybrid! While flute is my main instrument, I also direct ensembles, improvise, curate concerts, play theremin (an electronic instrument) and melodica (a small keyboard that is blown into), perform with interactive computer systems, and create performance art pieces using household objects as musical instruments.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
What a fun question! We’d take the trolley to spend time at the Nasher and the DMA, followed by happy hour at Si Tapas or Uchi. We’d spend time browsing in Oak Cliff, ending the evening listening to music at Wild Detectives, enjoying their cocktails and empanadas. I guess I like bookstores too much, because we’d also visit Deep Ellum to stop by Deep Vellum Bookstore and Publishing Co., maybe after we’d grab a crepe at the nearby creperie, or head to Hawker’s for some snacks. If we’re wanting to just chat alongside delicious treats and coffee, we’d head to Zaguan. Since I live in Denton, we’d spend time here too – maybe yet another bookstore, Denton’s incredible Recycled Books and Records. Hopefully, one of Denton’s best restaurants, Boca 31, will have reopened (they had a fire a couple months ago, and since then have only been doing pop-ups); otherwise, depending on the day we’ll either go to the Blind Fox food truck for Bao with drinks on the patio at Eastside Social Club, or Feta’s Lone Star Greek food truck, with drinks at Oak Street Drafthouse. Let’s also add a stop in FW. We’d visit the Modern Art Museum of FW, one of my favorite places. If Cafe Modern isn’t open while we’re there, we’d visit the Boca 31 location in FW.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Essential to my creative practice is collaboration with others. In directing my new music series Sounds Modern, I rely on my co-director Andrew May and the Museum of Modern Art Fort Worth (our primary venue). In my improvisation and performance art practice, my ensemble members in Bitches Set Traps (BST) push me in new directions, in the best way. In my work with composers, my mentor Harvey Sollberger modeled for me ethical approaches to music making, score reading, and creating new works. My students at the University of North Texas College of Music are amazing, inspiring, and lots of fun to teach!

Website: www.elizabethmcnutt.net, www.soundsmodern.org

Instagram: @flutewhich

Facebook: @elizabethmcnutt

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtR3u-h3Z9GPo46lPjEF55g/

Image Credits
Photo credits: Elle Logan (profile without flute), Stephen Lucas (shot with piano), and Jennifer Boomer (Marfa)