Barbara Rookard

From the time I was five years old, I knew I wanted to play the flute. Actually, my early music experiences have informed my current playing style, which is to try to infuse my playing with emotion. As far back as I can recall, music has always had a strong effect on my life. This is a charming idea, unless you were me at 3 years of age, playing the first record I remember having: "Puff, the Magic Dragon." I would listen to it over and over again, and I cried each time the song got to the part, "one gray night it happened, Jackie Papers came no more."Why didn't he come anymore? How could he leave his friend like that? And what kind of song is this for children? I still wonder.
So, I lost my four front teeth. I got a quarter for each tooth, and I took the money to Newberry's Department Store in my hometown of Elkton, Maryland. I had my eye on this multi-colored one octave xylophone for quite some time. I was toothleth, but that thylaphone was mine! I practiced playing my xylophone a lot, but having seen the Holly Hall Elementary School Band perform, I already knew I was a flutist waiting to happen.
Now this brings up an interesting point. I learned just a few years ago from a genealogist that I am descended from two of the men in the Archibald Willard painting, "The Spirit of 1776." One of whom is the fife player, whose name was John Justice. The other was the drummer who is painted to look like a young boy. I am told he wasn't that young (what mother would allow a child that young to go off to war?), and that his name was Simeon Justice. All of this came as news to me, as I had known very little of the Justice family. I knew they were from a remote coal mining community in Asco, West Virginia. I cannot say for sure if this connection to the musicians in this painting is true, however, the family has evidence of receipts paid to John and Simeon Justice, who were in the drum corps serving under Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion in the South Carolina militia, which this painting depicts. Am I channeling the "Spirit of 1776" in my "Spirit of America Remembers" video? I'm just saying, I knew I wanted to play the flute since I can remember anything. Ask my mother!
Having said that, I'd like to tell you that my connection to the Spirit of 1776 fife player gave me a jump start on a brilliant flute career. As it turned out, it did not. I was on my own. I learned whatever I could from Band Class and was essentially self-taught, playing every piece of music I could get my hands on. I practiced a lot. A lot! I received a full scholarship to study flute and to also major in Music Therapy at Tennessee Tech University, in Cookeville, Tennessee. A wonderful experience, plus, I learned a new language. For instance, did you know you can easily refer to a group of people as "Ya'll?"
And if you want to refer to multiple groups of people, you can say, "All Ya'll?" Still, if you want to show plural possessive, you can easily say, "All Ya'lls'?" This is great stuff!
Time went on. From majoring in Music Therapy in college, I went on to obtain a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology at Loyola University in Maryland and professional licensure coursework at Towson University. For some reason, these two disciplines have always been intertwined for me. You will note from my playing that it has a strong emotional component. You will see from my interest in Veterans? charities (see the Veterans' tab on this website) that I care very much about their health and welfare.
Along the way, I began to feel the need to do more flute playing. And it came to pass that one night I had a dream. True story. In this dream, Amy Grant was visiting our church office. I walked into the office carrying my flute and, feeling somewhat nervous, said, "Hello," and then just stood there looking at her. Amy Grant looked at me and said, "Well? Are you going to play that thing, or are you just going to hold it?" I immediately responded that I was going to play it! The next Sunday, I approached the music director at the church, auditioned and went on to play at Grace Fellowship Church in the northern suburbs of Baltimore for a number of years. Thus began my interest in playing Christian music.
Having majored in classical flute in college, playing Christian music in front of thousands with a music director who was an improvisational jazz player was a stretch for me, to say the least. For someone who enjoys knowing what song we are going to play and what key it is in before a song starts, let me say, this experience was a challenge! I would literally pray as I drove myself to church, "Lord, please do not let me ruin anyone's worship this morning."
In the ensuing years, I joined a group called, "The Red Maple Band." I was lead flutist. I was the only flutist. We played mostly celtic and folk music at local events, county fairs, weddings, what have you. I enjoyed playing with these guys very much. In retrospect, I look back on us much the way I look at the band from the movie, "A Mighty Wind," although you should know that none of us went on to cross-dress. Sadly, one of my band members died last year as a result of an automobile injury. It was about this time that I began to think about recording something of my own creation and, after much thought, I arrived at this concept of "Flusion."
This is first and foremost a project featuring the flute. The surrounding instrumentals and vocals are intended to support that endeavor. Also, the songs presented in this album represent different musical styles. This was intentional, as I would prefer not to be confined by one playing style or another. Although I enjoy playing traditional hymns on "the pretty flute," there is so much more I would like to say, musically speaking. With that in mind, I named the project, "Flusion," which refers to a fusion of flute styles. Although the song styles vary, a few things remained constant as we worked through each piece: each song featured the flute in some way, each song had a strong acoustical component and, importantly, the song dictated the arrangement. I learned that allowing each song to have its own personality had unanticipated consequences! As an example, it came as a surprise to me that someone sounding a lot like Joanie Mitchell emerged on my vocals. Have I always sounded that way? I don't know. No one said anything.
In recording this project, it was my express intention to collaborate with other artists whose talents and musical voices would add to or embellish my own. I have described their names and contributions elsewhere, but let me just say here how very much I love these guys and thank them for everything they have done to help with this Flusion Project.

Being a very creative person, Barbara Rookard works in many fields today. She is a talented artist and singer.