Beyond the Notes presents
Beyond the Notes:
Tiger Lily Trio Plays Folio
Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 12:00 PM
Charles Library Event Space
Light refreshments served. Boyer recital credit given.
All programs are free and open to all, and registration is encouraged.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Dr. Cynthia Folio, who composed Western Winds, Eastern Roots for the Tiger Lily Trio. Western Winds, Eastern Roots will be available through PARMA Records along with several of Dr. Folio’s other Compositions
Joanna Moxley: What drew you to composition as a career path?
Cynthia Folio: I started out as a flute major for my undergraduate degree at West Chester University, and a teacher named Larry Nelson had me playing a lot of contemporary music on flute. Eventually, he said, “Well, why don’t you join my composition class?” I had played around with composition but had never really composed a piece before. So, I wrote my first piece in his composition class. It was a piece for solo flute called Flute Fantasy.
After that class, I caught the composing bug. I was a theory major when I went to Eastman, but I took composition with Joseph Schwantner. He is an excellent composer and won a Pulitzer Prize for one of his compositions.
I came to composition a little bit late in my life. When I was younger, I actually didn’t think women could compose; I had no role models, and my history classes were primarily focused on male composers.
JM: Do you have a favorite composer who is currently active?
Dr. Folio: One role model for me these days is Jennifer Higdon, who is also a wonderful flute player. I don’t know if she’s actively playing so much anymore because she is so busy as a composer, but I was able to hear her play one of her own compositions for solo flute, and it was just awesome! Another local favorite is Andrea Clearfield, who was a student of mine at Temple.
JM: How did you balance teaching, composing, and performing throughout your career?
Dr. Folio: I’m still trying to balance those roles, and I’m retired! I’ve got several projects in the works and I’m still performing.
JM: What was your process like for Western Winds, Eastern Roots? How did you go about research for this piece?
Dr. Folio: I played in a Middle Eastern band for several years, the leader was Joseph Alpar, who was a student of mine at Temple. He grew up in the Middle East, I think Turkey, and we played a lot of music from Middle Eastern countries. I was very taken with the style, especially the fact that it had an improvisatory aspect to it. I would always improvise a taqsim when we played together. I think he teaches at Bennington College and is not close by anymore, but that was a big influence for me.
It’s called Western Winds, of course, because it’s written for flute, clarinet, and piano. The Eastern Roots would be the research I had done and my experience playing Middle Eastern music with this band.
JM: How did you balance incorporating eastern characteristics into a piece that is written for western instruments and carries the expectations of western harmonies?
Dr. Folio: I used some of the rhythmic and modal characteristics from eastern music, which is included in the program notes, and I quote a couple of tunes from the Middle East. I sometimes use the western instrument in a non-western way, like the very opening where the flute does a glissando from the g-sharp to the a by sliding off the keys. I’m trying to use the western instruments, because it [the music] is most likely to be played by western instrumental musicians while at the same time incorporating non-western techniques like slides and taqsim, which is a form of improvisation. Since I know that western trained musicians can’t necessarily improvise in an eastern style, I wrote out what I might have improvised if I were playing this piece.
Throughout the piece, I go back between western and eastern styles. In fact, I just noticed I go into a Baroque fugue in the middle of the piece. Then the piece ends with a rhythmic figure that you don’t typically find in western music but is common in the music I played with David’s Harp [the band led by Joseph Alpar].
Please enjoy also these previous Beyond the Notes concerts featuring the music of Cynthia Folio!
Folio + Phantasma featuring Relâche Ensemble
By Joanna Moxley