“We wanted to take a moment to honor Darlene Dugan. Darlene was a lifeforce in the West Michigan Flute Community, and she passed away earlier this week, (April 20, 2023). She had a Huge impact on all of us and really left quite a legacy in our lives. We talked about how many years we all studied with her, and I know just counting up my own years, it was close to 30 years that I studied with her until she finally said, ‘I taught you everything I know, you have to go study with somebody else.’ So she will be definitely missed. She was our flute mother and a magnet which brought us all together. In fact, if it weren’t for her, we might not even be here today together, because she was really about ensemble playing, and mixing and matching people, and different instruments.”