Professional Custom Flutes

» landell flutes » friends » history page 5
Jon Landell Jr. writes this about his lifetime love-hate relationship with the flute. Continued from page 2.

So I played piano and french horn, made knives, and prostrated Papa's shop for any and all purposes but flutemaking. French horn was the serious pursuit, and soon Papa was driving me 2 1/2 hours each way to Montreal on weekends, so I could study with guys like Jamie Somerville and Pierre Savoire and play in Montreal's best youth orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique des Jeunes de Montreal. And still no pressure, no pushing, no "when are you going to settle down and make flutes?" questions.

When God was gracious enough to point out that being a professional hornist was pretty much impossible, I dropped music entirely and went into... you guessed it, architecture. I graduated with a 2-year degree in Architecture & Building Science at 18, and flew the coop for California. And there I discovered the real world. In the real world, I guess, you can't go to work in your pajamas. You can't fool around with flutes for 14 hours and then take the next day off. You can't meet the most brilliant musicians in the world and have the pride of offering them an instrument better than any other. No, in the real world, you sit in front of a computer and placate bosses who aren't as nice to you as your parents. And you know what? You can't get anything done. The real world is actually rather unmotivating, an awful place for homeschooled kids. It has nothing to do with superior intelligence... if you grow up in a self-motivated environment where it's OK to do your physics in your pajamas - as long as you get the grade, the politics and headaches of modern business are enormously irritating. The emphasis is on appearance, not performance... and so performance suffers, collectively as well as individually.

So I worked for three different architecture firms, getting a flavor for the industry and deciding whether architecture would be friendly to my future family. The answer was an emphatic no, and that was that. I came home, and the rest is history in the making.

In conclusion, flutemaking is no longer boring. It has been a joy to return to. My work is real work, and hard work - but it's good work, and rewarding. No politics. Just musicians to work with, most of whom are wonderfully interesting people. God has been very good to me, and interestingly I am enjoying music more than ever now that I've abandoned professional aspirations. Jazz piano is actually making me money, and some architectural drafting helps support my new videography business. A busy life? Yes. Too busy? No. My great hope is that the phenomenal work and research my dad has done in flutemaking will be recognized by the flute community for what it is - history in the making. He is such a humble man that jaded consumers are unimpressed by his jovial and low-key spirit; I for one am very impressed with the enormity of his work, as are the inner circle of world-famous musicians who know better than to judge by appearances. My hope and prayer is that I will be a worthy successor to his name.

-Jonathon A. Landell Jr.
July, 2003
Back to Friends