Bavarian-born flutist connects with animals by music

SEYMOUR, Mo. -- Camel kisses, penguin parties and an audience of elephants are nothing out of the ordinary for Bettine Clemen, a musical Dr. Doolittle who plays her flutes around the world for creatures great and small.

Clemen feels everything in nature is connected, she says, and playing her music for animals promotes spirituality and peace.

To share that connection with human audiences, she developed an audiovisual program of music which she performs internationally for six months of the year. She's also recorded a dozen CDs, published her autobiography and recorded a video of her music and travels.

"When I do my concerts around the world, mainly it's about the interconnection of life. I feel all life is connected: the trees, the animals, people -- everything. The more we can feel that, the more we have peace in the world," said the Bavarian-born Clemen.

Shunned the big city

Three years ago, Clemen and her English husband, Peter Longley, became unlikely but enthusiastic new Ozarkers when they moved to a rural plot of land near Seymour.

Concerned about potential problems as the new millennium approached, the couple shunned big-city living for a quiet life in the country.

Since then, Clemen has played her flutes for several Springfield organizations, Seymour Arts Council events and for schoolchildren between her world concerts. She leaves again shortly and will travel through May.

Clemen says she's excited to share her music with the people of southwest Missouri, where she feels so content.

"It was the best thing we ever did. We want to stay here the rest of our lives," she said.

"We really feel at home here," said her husband, an artist and writer who also designs gardens.

Since moving to Missouri from Minneapolis, they've made a point to get involved. Longley, who will soon release a set of six novels, is vice president of the Seymour Arts Council, an active group that brings concerts, poetry readings and art exhibits to the small community.

Longley helps organize the art exhibits, and he and Clemen hosted one of the concerts in their gardens, featuring the musician on her flute.

"We really feel we're part of the community. It's a warm and welcoming community," Longley said.

While Clemen cherishes the opportunity to perform, she likes knowing she comes home to wide-open Missouri spaces.

"It's a perfect balance," she said.

Clemen discovered the Ozarks while participating in a spiritual conference in Florida where she met a woman from Seymour who described the rural land near her own home. Clemen paid a visit, bought five acres and suggested to her rather surprised husband they should move before the New Year.

So Longley purchased an additional five acres of land (which has since grown to 31) and sketched a plan of the home they wanted. Complete with wind-driven water and a working wood-burning stove (which they've never used), the house perches over an expanse of woods and meadows.

Their land is also home to a menagerie of animals that includes horses Amadeus and Angelo, Dominic the donkey, Harry Trotter the pig and Orbit, a big white dog who adopted them.

Inside, Clemen has a piano and a collection of 75 flutes from around the world.

"I can't play all the flutes at once yet," Clemen said with a grin, "not that I haven't tried."

Though they lived in big cities for years, country life is a natural fit considering their individual histories. Clemen's love for animals and music began in Bavaria where she was born and raised. A somewhat isolated child, she turned to her horses and the flute for company.

When she was 16, her first boyfriend was killed in a car wreck which also left Clemen severely injured.

"That accident changed my life very much," she said. "When I came back from the coma, I wanted to dedicate my life to music and bringing peace and joy and healing with it."

Classically trained at the Academy of Music in Munich, Germany, she first performed with orchestras in Austria, Germany, Australia, Brazil and eventually the United States.

Her spiritual connection to nature was nurtured when she began to play for exotic animals of the Amazon while living in Brazil.

Today she's performed in more than 80 countries and has played for camels, elephants, penguins, snakes, bears, monkeys, birds and more on her excursions. Many of those encounters have been captured on film and are shown as part of her performance.

Marriage to an American eventually brought Clemen to the United States, which she has since made her home. Her first marriage ended amicably, and she eventually met and married her Englishman.

Longley has lived in the United States for decades. He once worked for an American family as the estate manager for their Irish castle and later on their Georgia plantation. He eventually turned to a life at sea where he worked for years as a cruise director on the Queen Elizabeth 2.

He met Clemen when she was booked to perform on the cruise for three weeks. They've been married for nine years, and since moving to Seymour, neither plans to live anywhere else.

"This peaceful place keeps me going," Clemen says. "And I might not have the accent yet of Seymour, but I'm practicing."