Native Flute Journeys

Sandi Horton is a Native American style flute player living in Central Texas. She composes and performs on a variety of flutes from bass to high ranges, made of different woods, by different flute makers. Each flute has a different voice. Her music is mostly meditative, sometimes playful, always original. She has three solo CDs.

Her music/videos can be heard: insighttimer.com/sandihorton youtube.com/@SandiHorton/videos

Photos with descriptions can be found: facebook.com/nativeflutejourneys instagram.com/sandi.horton

Sandi Horton is passionate about composing and performing music and poetry. In 2023, Sandi documented 76 LIVE performances and 59 ZOOM perfromances. In 2022, she documented 109 Native American-style flute performances on Zoom and 46 performances of her Native American-style flute music at live venues. Original music compositions are performed by Sandi on her three-hour long CDs: Native Flute Journeys 1, 2, and 3 (2018, 2020, 2022). Her music has been featured many times on One World Music Radio. Sandi was honored to be selected for second place in the 2022 Best Flute Single for “Mordovian Moods” by One World Music Radio, May 2023. In June 2023, she performed in London, United Kingdom, at the Majic Forest Arts Showcase. In the summer of 2021, she participated in a week -long retreat with R. Carlos Nakai in Montana. In April 2019, Sandi performed her music and poetry at the ARAS Art and Psyche International Conference in Santa Barbara, California. She has traveled throughout Europe, South America, China, and North America sharing music and poetry wherever she finds an opportunity. Sandi is the chairperson of the Waco WordFest and has been the editor of its yearly international anthology for ten years. Sandi completed a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Texas Tech University and a Master of Science degree in Educational Psychology from Baylor University. She worked in public schools as a band director and as school counselor for 20 years.

The article below was published in Overtones!, a quarterly publication of the World Flute Society, in August 2021. It describes Sandi Horton’s flute journey beginning at the age of nine.

Falling in Love Three Times …

silver flute, soprano recorder, native flute

by Sandi Horton

The first time I heard a solo flute was at an elementary school PTA program. Instantly I fell in love, at age 9, with the sound of a silver flute. A year later, on the same stage, I was the flute soloist. My life long journey with the flute was off and running. During my school years, my identity was playing flute in band, orchestra, and church. Every day I walked home from school with my flute case in hand. Continuing in college, I majored in music, playing the piccolo in the Texas Tech University Marching Band. Music took over most of my time practicing, performing, and talking about music activities with my friends. By the time I graduated from college, I was burned out. I took a year off to get married, travel, and have friends who weren’t musicians.

Finally, I missed my flute and started playing popular songs from the 70’s like Jethro Tull, California Dreamin’, Color My World… Then classical music started calling me again to play in regional, professional orchestras. I enjoyed hanging out with the other performers. My closest friends, in our 20’s, formed the Redbud Woodwind Quintet that became an ‘artist-in-residence’ group for the Cultural Arts Center in Temple, TX. We also taught at the local college so we performed there, too. Planning, rehearsing, and teaching flute music became my life. I also taught band and orchestra in public schools, and a private studio of 20 students.

By the time I was 30, I was starting to burn out again. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and stopped playing the flute for a while, focusing on my two toddler children. I enjoyed being a stay at home mom, playing flute occasionally at churches as a soloist or with a choir. I also performed as a soloist with local orchestras in the Bach Suite No. 2 for Flute and Orchestra and as the solo flutist in Brandenburg Concerto #2.

As the orchestral flute became more difficult due to my RA and degenerative joint disease in my spine, I began playing the soprano recorder. I fell in love again with the sound of another flute – the wooden soprano recorder. I traveled to NYC to purchase a professional soprano recorder at The Flute Store across from Lincoln Center. I played this new Moeck recorder for several years in a Celtic Ensemble. By the time I was 40, I became interested in all kinds of world music that I could transcribe for soprano recorder. My husband Jeff had a career as a symphony string bass musician, but also played the guitar and mandolin. We formed the Horton Duo, began arranging all our own songs, and playing music we liked from around the world. Our first two CDs were Celtic music- Across the Sea and World music – Around the World. We especially loved playing Christmas music every year so our third CD was Christmas Classics.

In the publication American Recorder, I discovered jazz could be played on alto recorder. My next project as a flutist was to play alto recorder and jazz. My husband Jeff was already an accomplished jazz musician so we began playing jazz standards together on alto recorder and guitar. When I was ready for a step-up instrument, I traveled to California to try out some Mollenhauer alto recorders from Bill Lazar at his early music store. I especially love the sound of ballads on the wooden alto flute! After years of arranging music for our duo, it was fun for me to write my own jazz solos. Our 4^th CD is our Jazz Love Songs. The Horton Duo has over 500 documented performances together.

Driving through Fredericksburg, Texas on our way to a church retreat, we stopped at a music store. I found several High Spirits Native American Flutes for sale. I had never seen or heard a NAF before, so of course I tried playing it. The sound was so beautiful and easy to produce, I fell in love again. One of the aromatic cedar flutes in A minor spoke to my soul. I knew this flute was going to Mo Ranch for the week-end. I listened to the instruction CD as we drove to our retreat. The next day, I took my new companion flute to the Frio River to play notes to the water rapids, the canyon, the wildflowers, and the butterflies. I watched the rhythm of the flowing water, the butterfly wings, and the breeze moving the flowers. I moved my fingers while blowing air into the new flute to communicate what I saw.

It was as if I had traveled to another world. Nothing else existed except the sound of the native flute and the nature around me. I was in paradise. I continued played my new flute by myself, making up songs without traditional musical notation. I created my own kind of shorthand to remember melodies that seemed to flow from my heart. I didn’t know any other native flute players or had not heard any recordings of NAF. I thought the instrument was just something unusual I found in a small town music store. My new cedar flute provided hours of enjoyment.

In January 2018, I saw a notice in our local newspaper for a Native Flute Circle gathering at a library close to my house. I took my one and only NAF, a cedar A flute, with me. I was shocked when I saw dozens of different sizes of native flutes spread on tables and a room full of people I had never seen before. A microphone was set up in the corner of the room and chairs were arranged in a circle facing the mic. Players took turns playing solos on different flutes, including me. Then some duos and trios improvised together. Most of the music was original, played from the heart with the player telling about the piece and the flute they were playing. I was amazed and inspired to hear several outstanding players.

After talking to the other NAF players I discovered a whole world of artisan flute makers, players, and flute events. I began to listen to online players. Two months later, in March 2018, I ordered two additional flutes from High Spirits by mail – a condor bass in D and a double flute an octave higher in D. The flutes arrived the day before I had a week long solo trip to the beach planned to write poetry and music. I learned to play my new native flute instruments and began writing songs for them. I fell in love with my new flutes as we vacationed together on the beach for a week. As soon as I returned home, I scheduled recording time at the studio where I had made previous Horton Duo CDs. My producer had met R. Carlos Nakai and was familiar with his music. My first album was in the style of Nakai. By June 2018, Native Flute Journeys, was completed with almost an hour of original native flute music on my three flutes. I mailed a copy to High Spirits since all the CD music was played on High Spirits flutes. Odell Borg called me a week later asking to feature my song, Go to Sleep, My Love, played on condor bass as a SoundCloud download in the July 2018 Flute Talk issue. I had now become part of a larger native flute community.

My next album released in March 2020 was titled, Native Flute Journeys 2. Seven different flutes are used on this solo album of original songs mostly written for one hand. In March 2019, a boating accident dislocated my wrist, breaking the distal radius and ulna bones. I learned ways to play flute with one hand and performed at over 50 events using only one hand. My hand will never be the same, but I can play with all my fingers now and I’m working on Native Flue Journeys 3.

My greatest joy is sharing my love of native flutes with others. I love to play for people, dogs, trees, rivers, beaches – everywhere I go.