The Birth of Falls House Press

Falls House Press was created in 1992 when Linda True was a flute student of Douglas Worthen. During a lesson, we played some Gabrielski duets Douglas had found at a yard sale for only ten cents! These were the original embossed woodblock-print editions, probably dating from the first half of the 19th century. At this point, he was also recording his “Exotic Impressions” CD by Sigrid Karg-Elert and thought it would be wonderful if flutists had access to this colorful music. We decided to start a business to republish these pieces as well as other compositions. We gradually met new composers and found even more worthwhile pieces to add to our ever-growing catalog, not only reproducing music that is out-of-print, but also discovering new music, either as transcriptions or newly written works. Falls House Press is the only publisher of our music.

Linda True

Linda True, co-owner of Falls House Press, plays flute and piccolo with the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic Orchestra and The Nashua Flute Choir, and has been honored to perform as a soloist with both organizations. She has also toured with the American Flute Orchestra in Austria and Italy. A founding member, President, and Chief Financial Officer of The Nashua Flute Choir, she has lectured on flute choirs and has directed flute choir reading sessions at the National Flute Convention and the Greater Boston Flute Association. She has also been an adjunct faculty flute instructor at Rivier College in Nashua, NH, where she also teaches privately.

Ms. True received her Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of New Hampshire, majoring in art and education, and later earned a degree from Rittner’s Floral Design and Business School in Boston. For twenty-five years, she has been an avid volunteer in many community service organizations and is Chief Financial Officer of the Good Cheer Society in Nashua, NH, which helps support Home, Health and Hospice Care.

Douglas Worthen

Since joining the SIUC School of Music faculty in 2008, Douglas Worthen has performed numerous concerts in the United States and abroad, and released two commercially available recordings. Highlighting his performance career, Worthen was invited to join the Lucerne Festival Strings (Switzerland) on three programs, including Bernard Haitink’s internationally acclaimed masterclasses. After touring with Red Cedar Chamber Music, Worthen recorded works of Kaspar Kummer with the ensemble for the Fleur de Son label, performing the program in Manchester, UK, for the British Flute Society International Convention. His recording of works by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier with harpsichordist Ursula Duetschler for Musica Omnia has received critical acclaim in both the American Record Guide and European publications. In May of 2011, Worthen will present concerts in NanNing and GuangXi, China. He has been invited to coach the prestigious Kammermusik chamber music program in Santa Fe, New Mexico this summer, and will return to St. Louis in September to perform with the Kingsbury Baroque Ensemble at Washington University. On campus, he has performed with the Altgeld Chamber Players, and has been an active contributor to the annual Outside The Box new music festival.

In addition to his professional activity as a flutist, Worthen conducts the Southern Illinois Flute Choir. He has also established a Semiotic Analysis Forum on campus to which he has contributed a number of articles and resources, and has taken an active role in the open-source web publications of OpenSIUC. Under his supervision, SIUC Music graduate student’s papers have attained the distinction of having some of the most downloads of the entire University’s repository. He is a board member of the Southern Illinois Chamber Music Society, and he is the faculty advisor of the Phi Mu Alpha Music Fraternity. He is an editor for Falls House Press, a music publishing company and affiliate of Theodore Presser.

Prior to joining the SIUC School of Music faculty, Worthen has been on the faculties of the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division, Bowdoin College, Walnut Hill School, and the Phillips Exeter Academy. Worthen has performed and recorded with the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, the Mannheim Quartet, and other ensembles in New England. His recording of Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s works for flute and piano for Leonarda Records with Janice Weber, and his solo tours to Russia, Central Europe, Canada, and Japan highlight his former musical accomplishments. (B.M., BME, Hartt School of Music; M. M. New England Conservatory; D.M.A., Hartt School of Music.)