Anne La Berge born Palo Alto , California , in is a flutist , composer and improviser, currently residing in Amsterdam. Her performances bring together a virtuosic command of her instrument, a penchant for improvising microtonal textures and melodies , and an array of percussive flute effects, all combined with electronic processing. She is known for her use of texts that form part of her compositions and improvisations.

Anne La Berge
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At the core of her work lies the sound that first gained her an international reputation, paving the way for a new, more physical approach to the flute: "The miracle of her sound technique is supported by, among other things, different lip-positions, attacks, ways of breathing, distance from the microphone-everything has been foreseen and elaborated, writes Muusika. She can be heard in a range of settings from modern ballet music in the music theaters of Holland to improvised electronic music in the local squat buildings. This series has received national recognition for its adventurous programming. It has also received financial support for its third year from the Dutch government for the season.
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Her early compositions collected on her first solo CD, blow pioneered a new approach to the flute — percussive, noise-filled, microtonal, sometimes aggressively physical, and light years away from the traditional image of the instrument. Technically, she worked with new lip techniques, breathing, and use of the microphone, developing the amplified flute as an instrument in its own right. In , together with the drummer Steve Heather and the synthesizer player Cor Fuhler, she founded Kraakgeluiden, a improvisation series based in Amsterdam, exploring combinations of acoustic instruments, electronic instruments and computers, and using real-time interactive performance systems. Its placing of cutting edge performance work in an informal, workshop-like setting has been highly successful and influential, and many of the musical collaborations that have resulted have taken on a life beyond the Kraakgeluiden series. We talked at her home in the east part of Amsterdam. Could you tell me a little about that? My mother is a violinist — a housewife first, but talented enough to be involved in the music scene in Minneapolis. My father was a psychology professor, a scientist; but also a choir director, and at the time in Minneapolis, in the late s and early 60s, there was no professional chorus. So he developed a chorus with his friends that sang with the symphony, called The Bach Society. Being a scientist he had a very slanted view on music, so Bach was God.
Her music gathers the elements on which her reputation is based: ferocious and far-reaching virtuosity, microtonal textures and melodies, and her unique array of percussive flute techniques, all combined with interactive electronic processing and text. La Berge is a precursor of some of the important things contemporary composition has now come to mean. The Wire. In , together Steve Heather and Cor Fuhler , she founded Kraakgeluiden, a improvisation series based in Amsterdam, exploring combinations of acoustic and electronic instruments using real-time interactive performance systems. Many of the resulting musical collaborations have have taken on a life beyond the Kraakgeluiden series, which ceased in