Beautiful sound

In junior high school Mark Sparks wanted to become a professional football player. Injuries and an extraordinary talent for the flute changed those plans. Now he's happy playing for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra instead of the St. Louis Rams.

An audience favorite in previous performances in Cape Girardeau, Sparks will be joined by Bulgarian musicians Valentina Takova and Ina Selvelieva in the next Sunday's at Three chamber music recital at Shuck Recital Hall on the River Campus in Cape Girardeau. Also performing will be Brandon Christensen, co-concertmaster of the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra, and pianist Jennifer Lim Judd.

Sparks is principal flute of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and a member of the full-time faculty at the Aspen Music Festival. He has given solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall and CAMI Hall in New York City. He taught at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore before taking the position in St. Louis.

He divides his time between orchestral rehearsals and performances and working with chamber groups, including the Aspen Chamber Symphony.

When he was 9, Sparks' mother took him to a music store in Cleveland. "She said, 'What instrument do you want to play?' The rest is history," he said.

Not quite, but he had an affinity for the flute right away. Soon he was enrolled in the Cleveland School of Music Preparatory Program. He had a good teacher, flutist Joseph Juhos. "He always told me I needed to learn to make a beautiful sound. That was the most important thing. In a strong Hungarian accent he told me I would be a great solo flutist."

Sparks' family moved to St. Louis when he was 12 and decided he would attend Kirkwood public schools rather than an out-of-state arts school. "Kirkwood was a good place to grow up, a positive environment," he said. He was a halfback and linebacker on the football team until the other players started getting bigger and he started getting injured. At 15, his interest in the flute took off. "I started to practice it incessantly," he said.

He became principal flute of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra before leaving to study at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio.

Sparks' career demonstrates the hard work and flexibility required of a classical musician. His first position with a symphony orchestra was in Caracas, Venezuela. Stints followed as principal flute with orchestras in Canton, Ohio; Memphis, Tenn.; and San Antonio. In Baltimore he was the symphony's associate principal flute before coming to St. Louis.

His family still lives in St. Louis, as do his ex-wife and their two children.

On a given day he could be doing single or double rehearsals with the orchestra, perhaps only performing with the orchestra or both rehearsing and performing. He also teaches. "I'm preparing repertoire for three or four orchestral concerts all the time," he said. "It's a lot of music to have under my fingers all the time."

Orchestral playing is his first passion. "I feel extremely lucky every day to keep doing it," he said. "I feel really proud to be in the position that I'm in, and I'm very proud of the orchestra here."

He enjoys playing chamber music with friends and players he respects. "The players I'm performing with in Cape Girardeau are fantastic players," he said.

Sunday's program will offer many combinations of instruments, including a flute and piano duet by George Hue featuring Sparks and Judd, and four movements of Beethoven's Trio, Op. 1, No. 3, with Christensen, Takova and Selvelieva. Sparks will perform Debussy's "Syrinx" for flute, one of the flute repertoire's most famous solo pieces. He and Takova will combine on the first movement of Villa Lobos' "Assobio a Jato (Jet Whistle)" for flute and cello.

Sparks, Takova and Selvelieva will be on stage for the finale, Carl Maria von Weber's Trio in G minor for flute, cello and piano. "It's a very exciting piece with depth, dimension, range and beautiful melodies," Sparks said. "It has exciting virtuosic playing."

Sparks became associated with Takova and Selvelieva through the Aspen Music Festival. Takova, a resident of New Haven, Conn., is a member of a performing group called the Yale Cellos. She studies at Yale with Aldo Parisot, one of the foremost cello teachers of the past century. Selvelieva received a master's degree in piano performance from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a doctorate from the University Wisconsin at Madison. Among her numerous prizes are the Southern Illinois Symphony Orchestra Solo Competition.

Judd teaches at East Central College in Union, Mo., and frequently collaborates with Christensen, the founder and artistic director of the Sundays at Three chamber music program.

Copies of Sparks' solo CD can be purchased at the recital. General admission tickets are $7 for seniors and students, and $10 for the general public and will be available at the door.

The next Sundays at Three concert will be March 30. For more information about the series go to www.chambermusicsundays.com.