Ashley Addington

A last minute decision led to a trip to New York City in the middle of August to attend the National Flute Association Convention.  I worked at the Flutacious booth in the convention hall.  The shop is based in the Los Angeles area and owned by the fabulous Cynthia Kelley.  Although I spent most of my time working in the exhibit hall, I did manage to sneak out to a few daytime events and heard the evening gala concerts.  This convention was hailed as big deal since it was in New York City.  The most newsworthy event occurred when Sir James Galway led a rousing crowd of 1,989 flutists to break the world record of flutists playing together at the same time.   I did not get a chance to participate since I was setting up in the exhibit hall, but they did make an announcement over the speaker.    It was quite a different situation when you left the Marriott in Times Square and walked out to the street and were surrounded by a few thousand tourists taking pictures, who probably had no idea that there were a few thousand flute players inside the Marriott.  Overall, a nice trip!  I have to give a congratulations shout-out to my friend, Sarah Paysnick, who earned 1st prize in the NFA Baroque Flute Artist Competition at the convention.