Founded by our chair, Charlie Kisby, there was a cheeky first get-together in December 2017, because she was too excited by the fact that there were indeed some fellow flautists who were interested in meeting up for some ensemble sessions. However, officially our first rehearsal was in January 2018 with just four attendees. Initially the group met twice a month, and as numbers grew we tried out different structures to cater to different abilities and confidence levels.
2020 was set to be an exciting year, as we had started establishing roots with return performances and had our first guest star appearance all lined up. However, we didn't let the pandemic deter or discourage us. We adapted to whatever rules were in place at the time:
- During total lockdown - we had Zoom socials with Kahoot quizzes and a memorable evening of charades.
- When there were restrictions on the amount of people that could meet, we held 'bubbled rehearsals of six' in the double garage with the door open - even in the run up to Christmas, we had stoic attendance. The Oundle Outdoor Fluting bubble continues to meet, so there have been positive outcomes from this.
- We also challenged ourselves to get to grips with click track recording our individual parts to record pieces via our phone cameras and also a collaborative app called Accapella.
