Flute Collections; Historical Information; Repair Info.

Helene has always had an interest in the instruments themselves. She currently has a small collection of some unique flutes. Much of the basic restoration work has been done by H. She is doing some serious consideration of turning this hobby into a business and studying flute repair and restoration seriously....stay tuned in the next couple of years for developments on this front.

Helene performs with Charter Oak Flutes and Concerto Winds on:

Haynes Alto Flute  circa 1950's - one beautiful instrument - if a bit tough on the shoulder. Picked up used after much searching for something better than the nice sounding Gemeinhardt Alto I owned for many years (beautiful sounding instrument but with keying meant for a saxophone player with LARGE hands). Some NYC player ended up with my Gemeinhardt and probably loves it if they have bassoon player or bari sax player  hands.

Armstrong Bass flute with solid silver head circa 1960's  - model no longer made, a very nice sounding flute with a somewhat finicky scale and a right hand rod configuration which will likely become a "fix up" project as soon as I have some time. Lightweight and comfortable to hold

A Rudall Carte solid silver bass flute - wonderful sounding instrument - painful to hold for very long....I'm trying to fix up some kind of mobile support to enable me to play this beauty more without scraping the tube and with still having some flexibility to move.

There is a picture of a nearly identical  instrument on Joseph Wild Sallenger's website http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/goferjoe/rcbass.htm (BTW Joe's collection is wonderful...he is also very gracious and generous with his time in the discussions on flutes I have had via the web with him! Thanks Joe!)