The Global Flute Studio's
One-week flute intensive
for students ages 10 to 17
is BACK in the summer of 2025,
This time open to flute students AND recorder students!
Last summer, our Floot Camp (mash-up of "flute" and "boot camp") was such a success that we have expanded our staff and opened the camp to recorder students as well as flute students!
The name of our new camp is The Flute-Sweet Boot Camp (for sideways flutes and sweet flutes!).
This summer, our day camp will take place from Monday, August 11th through Saturday, August 16th. Our location is Watchung Presbyterian Church on Watchung Avenue in Bloomfield (across the street from the famous and historic Holsten's homemade ice cream parlor!).
Registration forms can be obtained by contacting The Global Flute Studio at theglobalflutestudio@gmail.com.
Floot Camp 2025 is fully insured.
Camp Overview:
Flute-Sweet Boot Camp is an opportunity for your child or teen to focus on all aspects of their performance skills as a flutist, recorderist, or both, in an environment of fun and camaraderie. We address breathing and posture, tone production, intonation, articulation, scales and arpeggios, artistry and expression, improvisation, performer health, and performance anxiety. We also have recreational activities such as game time and visual and fine arts class. The camp takes place during the third week of August, just in time for band camps, back-to-school, and fall recorder workshops, so that your young musician will be playing at their best in all of their musical activities at the start of the school year. The students will also be exposed to a wide array of folk and traditional flutes from around the world, flutes and recorders from different historical periods, as well as flutes and recorders in an amazing variety of sizes during our fun facts time.
Our primary instructor is Global Flute Studio proprietor Dr. Jessica Valiente, assisted by an outstanding staff of flute and recorder instructors and our Visual Arts Instructor, Lorelei MacAndrews.
Daily Schedule:
Instruction begins every morning at 9:00 a.m., but we will have an optional early drop-off/breakfast time at 8:00 a.m. for parents who need to drop off their kids earlier. After morning stretches and warm-ups, students are divided into groups of flute or recorder, level A or level B. There are curriculum tracks for flute-only, recorder-only, and for flutist-recorderists.
Monday 8/11 to Friday 8/15, daily pick-up time is 4:00 p.m.
Our sixth day, Saturday, is a concert day. There will be a dress rehearsal in the late morning and families are invited to attend the afternoon concert. Students will return home with their families at the end of the concert.
The Global Flute Studio will provide snacks (fruit, pretzels, granola bars, fruit snacks, frozen treats), juice, and water for all students. Students should bring a bag lunch every day.
We will also provide bagels (cream cheese, butter), donuts, and orange juice for 8:00 a.m. early drop-off students (we can provide alternatives for students with dietary restrictions with advanced notice).
Eligibility:
Students must be between the ages of 10 and 17 during the week of the camp (they must be at least 10 years old by or before 8/11/2025 and cannot turn 18 years old before 8/17/2025), and they must have at least one school year of experience playing their instrument (they began playing in the fall semester of 2024 or earlier). Recorder students must be able to play a full one-octave range on either C or F recorders.
Our Instructors:
Dr. Jessica Valiente, B.A., M.A., DMA. Camp Director and Principal Instructor, Flute and Recorder Specialist
(she/her)
Jessica Valiente holds a B.A. in music from Barnard College in conjunction with Manhattan School of Music, an M.A. in music performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music (Queens College, City University of New York), and a D.M.A. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). She is a 2014-2015 recipient of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) American Dissertation Fellowship for her dissertation on Cuban charanga bands in New York City from 1960-2000, and is the author of The Charanga Handbook: A Flutist's Guide, a method book which grew out of that dissertation.
She specializes in the performance of both vernacular and popular music of Latin America, Latin jazz and straight-ahead jazz, historical performance practice, and traditional global flutes. Her major flute teachers were Harold Bennett, Robert Stallman, and Bernard Goldberg. She studied jazz and Latin flute improvisation with Frank Wess, Mauricio Smith, Dave Valentin, and Mark Weinstein; baroque flute and historical flutes with Michael Lynn. She has toured, performed, and recorded with ensembles specializing in the music of southern Italy, Spain, Brazil, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. She has been the director of the Latin jazz ensemble Los Mas Valientes since 1995, with whom she has released five full-length albums. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The National Cathedral (DC), Brookhaven Amphiteater (LI), Hostos Center for Culture and the Arts, The 92nd Street Y, The Gaillard Center (Charleston), New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, Heinz Hall (Pittsburgh), Baltimore Symphony Hall, The Hartford Jazz Festival, Caramoor Center for the Arts, and more. She has previously lectured in music at John Jay College, Baruch College, University of Bridgeport, The New School, Mercy College, Montclair State University, and has taught flute at Brooklyn College (CUNY), Montclair State University, and The New School. She is currently on the faculty of the music division of the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, where she coaches chamber music and is the Director of the Latin American Chamber Music Ensemble.
Dr. Jessica Valiente is the proprietor of The Global Flute Studio and the principal instructor of Floot Camp 2024. You can learn more about her teaching studio by clicking here, and her career as a performer and researcher here.
Adrienne Baker, B.M., M.M., G.P.D., A.B.D. Instructor, Flute Specialist
(she/her)
Adrienne Baker holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College, a Master of Music degree from the Longy School of Music in Boston, a graduate artist diploma from Montclair State University, and will complete the Doctor of Music Arts degree at Mason Gross School of the Arts in May. She has a wide range of experience as a composer, arranger, soloist, chamber musician, and arts administrator. She has composed and commissioned and premiered multiple works and performed them throughout the northeast. As an educator, Adrienne currently holds a position at the ArtsEd wing of The New Jersey Performing Arts Center where she teaches in the Jazz for Teens program. She has held positions as Adjunct Faculty at Monmouth University, The Opportunity Music Project, Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras, and Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Owen Davitt, B.A., M.A. Instructor, Recorder Specialist
(he/him)
Multi-instrumentalist/
Ross Matos, B.M. Instructor, Flute Specialist
(he/him)
Ross Matos will complete his BM degree in Music Performance (Flute) from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University this May. There he studied under Kaoru Hinata for four years. Ross has performed with Rutgers Sinfonia, Rutgers Symphonic Winds, Rutgers Wind Ensemble, and Rutgers Symphony Orchestra. He was also a member of the Latin American Chamber Music Ensemble and Rainbow Symphony at Rutgers. He has explored a variety of global traditional flutes during his undergraduate studies. In 2023 he helped to found The Global Flute Studio's Floot Camp summer day camp and served as an intern. In the summer of 2024 he was promoted to Assistant Instructor and this coming summer will be his first as a full instructor.
Rick Faulkner, B.Mus. Ed., M.M. Instructor, Improvisation
(he/him)
Rick Faulkner has an undergraduate degree in music education from Indiana University and a master's degree in jazz performance from Manhattan School of Music. His musical experience ranges from traditional jazz and bebop to salsa, Latin jazz, Haitian compas, Brazilian choro, klezmer, bluegrass, and more. As an educator, Mr. Faulkner has taught jazz studies and brass studies at Hunter College (CUNY), music history at Mercy College, and he has directed various ensembles at Stokes Forest Music Camp (MSU). He is the director of The ABC! Ensemble -- a jazz, blues, and world music ensemble for advanced high school students -- for Youth Orchestras of Essex County since 2013. He has been teaching instrumental music in New York City public schools since 2005, and he is currently the band director and director of instrumental music at New York City’s Talented and Gifted School for Young Scholars.
Lorelai McAndrews, B.F.A. Instructor, Visual Arts
(she/her)
Lorelai McAndrews holds a BFA in Visual Arts from Montclair State University, where she majored in Animation and Illustration. She was a recipient of the Presidential Scholars award for all four years of her undergraduate degree, and also won the Elizabeth Bellah Flippin Visual and Performing arts award in 2020. Ms. McAndrews teaches classes at The Gravity Vault in Montclair, New Jersey, and is a counselor for their summer camp program.
Daphne Faulkner Valiente, Intern. Recorder Specialist, Ensemble Director
(she/her)
Daphne Faulkner recently completed her first year of undergraduate study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she is the 2024 winner of the Full Presidential Award scholarship. She is majoring in violin performance with a minor in composition. Daphne has won numerous competitions and awards as a violinist, and has consistently won high-ranking chairs in competitive orchestras such as North Jersey Region 1 and New Jersey All-State orchestras. She has studied recorder and interned as an assistant Suzuki Recorder Instructor at Montclair Early Music for their educational programs. Daphne has studied conducting with Aarti Rishi, Wilfred Hylton, and continues to pursue conducting studies at Berklee.