BUY TICKETS NOW TO FRIENDS OF THE GARDEN FUNDRAISER CONCERT STARRING BETTINE CLEMEN OCTOBER 16

Flautist Bettine Clemen, whose innovative and moving concerts in more than 85 countries have been described by the New York Times as “an event that smiled out from the stage,” is bringing her harmony-infused performance to Springfield at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 16, at the Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center.

Admission to the concert is $25 per person. Tickets are for sale at the Botanical Center gift shop, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., Monday-Saturday, and from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are available at the door, but will be limited to 120 ticket-holders.

The fundraiser to benefit the Friends of the Garden“ expresses the interconnectedness of all life and how music as the universal language can bring us all closer together—humans, animals, plants, trees and all life forms into harmony,” said Clemen.

“We are grateful to Bettine for offering to do this concert,” said Nancy Hopkins, the Friends of the Garden member who chairs the committee to raise funds to build a sensory garden at Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park. “Her concerts are multi-sensory, just as the sensory garden will be, a tranquil, accessible place for everyone, but especially for those with physical, visual and hearing disabilities.”

Clemen’s solo show combines light classical, pop, jazz and ethnic music with videos of ‘concerts’ for more than 50 different species of animals. She has performed in the U.S., Petra Jordan, China, Japan, South America, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Russia. “Be prepared,” she says, “to meet at least 80 elephants, thousands of penguins, a very ancient turtle, many camels and other exotic animals,” all serenaded by Clemen on seven different flutes.

Bavarian-born, Clemen was awarded a master’s degree in the Academy in Munich and, in her early career, played with the Munich Bach Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, Prague Radio Chamber Orchestra and Belo Horizonte Symphony, as well as on many international cruise ships, “my favorite way of touring,” she says.

She has toured for Columbia Artists, playing more than 300 concerts in the U.S., recording a dozen CDs and DVDs and writing a book, “Open Your Ears to Love.”

Her film, “Flutasia: A Love Song for a Planet,” was shown twice on PBS stations in the Midwest. In 1987, she was one of the first Western musicians to be invited by the Chinese government to perform and teach in Shanghai and Beijing.

Clemen made her home in Missouri, south of Seymour, for a brief time, but now has returned to her roots, spending her free time from touring in the high mountains of Bavaria close to Salzburg.