People

By Sara C. Medina

Seventy-six trombones and 110 cornets may be all very well, but they aren't a patch on 550 flutists. The instrumentalists, who were attending the 14th Annual Flute Convention in New York City, gathered in the plaza at Lincoln Center one morning last week for a "flute-in"; they included teachers from Kentucky, flute- makers from Connecticut and Suzuki-method pupils from California. As cameras focused in for the Today show, diminutive Irish Pied Piper James Galway led the rows of virtuosos in Danny Boy, then John Denver's Annie's Song, which a Galway recording has popularized, and finally Amazing Grace. Why not a classical program? Says Galway: "What's the first thing you'd want to hear in the morning? Not some flute study. I thought they'd rather hear a folk tune."