Carol Wincenc, Flute

Carol Wincenc is one of the most respected and acclaimed flutists performing today. She appears with orchestras worldwide and has premiered works written for her by numerous prominent composers.

Ms. Wincenc's musicianship is matched by a deep commitment to expanding the flute repertoire. With the Detroit Symphony, she gave the world premiere of a flute concerto written for her by Pulitzer-Prize winner Christopher Rouse. Ms. Wincenc also gave the world premiere of Henryk Gorecki's Concerto-Cantata at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and the U.S. premiere with the Chicago Symphony. She is in demand for her interpretation Lukas Foss's Renaissance Concerto for Flute and Orchestra-a work written for her, and has premiered concerti by Peter Schickele, Joan Tower, Paul Schoenfield and Tobias Picker-who composed The Rain In The Trees, a double concerto for her and soprano Barbara Hendricks inspired by the rainforest poems of W.S. Merwin. In a Valentine's Day recital in New York's Merkin Concert Hall in 1998, she premiered ten short "valentines" written for her by Gorecki, Schickele, and Michael Torke among others.

The 2008-09 season brings Ms. Wincenc to Rockford, IL to perform the Christopher Rouse Flute Concerto with the Rockford Symphony (IL), the Santa Rosa Symphony (CA), and ProMusica Columbus, to name a few of her concerto engagements. In recent seasons she has appeared with her trio Les Amies in Minneapolis and St. Cloud, MN; and concerto performances with the New Mexico, Phoenix and Pioneer Valley symphonies; she was the guest of Honor for the New York Flute Club Flute Fair, and appeared in recital, premiering the Six Chassidic Songs of Paul Schoenfield with pianist Stephen Gosling; in Summer 2007, Ms. Wincenc received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Brevard Music Center and inaugurated the new Barrere Flute Studio at the Chautauqua Institution with a solo recital.

Ms. Wincenc has appeared with the St. Louis, Atlanta, and Seattle Symphonies; the Los Angeles and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras; and at the Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Spoleto, Caramoor, Marlboro, Sarasota, and Music @ Menlo festivals. Overseas, Ms. Wincenc has given acclaimed performances with the London Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, and at the Aldeburgh, Budapest, Tivoli and Frankfurt international music festivals.

Equally sought after as a chamber musician, Ms. Wincenc has collaborated with the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo and Cleveland String Quartets; performed with sopranos Jessye Norman and Elly Ameling; pianist Emanuel Ax; and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Carol Wincenc is flutist with the New York Woodwind Quintet and the newly-formed Les Amies, with New York Philharmonic principal players Nancy Allen, harp, and Cynthia Phelps, viola.

Ms. Wincenc created and directed a series of International Flute Festivals at the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul. The overwhelming success of these festivals, which featured such diverse artists as Jean-Pierre Rampal, Herbie Mann and American-Indian flutist R. Carlos Nakai, led to a celebrated U.S. tour with performances in New York and San Francisco.

A prolific recording artist, her debut solo album on the Music Masters label was in collaboration with pianist Andras Schiff, and cited by Stereo Review as a "Recording of Special Merit.” Carol Wincenc received a 2005 Grammy nomination for her Naxos recording of works by Yehudi Wyner with Richard Stoltzman and other renowned colleagues. She recorded Christopher Rouse’s Flute Concerto for Telarc with Christoph Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony winning the highly coveted Diapason d'Or prize.

She has recorded an all-American disc with pianist Samuel Sanders, composers David Del Tredici and Lukas Foss on the Nonesuch label, and the complete Mozart flute quartets with the Emerson String Quartet for Deutsche Grammophon. She has also recorded Lukas Foss's Renaissance Concerto under the direction of the composer for New World Records, Joan Tower's Concerto with the Louisville Orchestra on the d’Note label and Paul Schoenfield's Klezmer Rondos with John Nelson and the New World Symphony for London/Decca Records. Ms. Wincenc was featured with the Muir String Quartet on a collection of modern chamber works by composers ranging from Samuel Barber to Hector Villa-Lobos for Eco-Classics. Her recording of the Schoenfield’s Slovakian Childrens Songs was released on an all-Schoenfield disc by the American Composers Forum. Ms. Wincenc’s most recent recording is of the Mozart flute concertos on the Naxos label entitled Mozart at Eight.

Ms. Wincenc is a professor of flute at both the Juilliard School of Music and Stony Brook University. Carl Fischer recently published the first in a series of Carol Wincenc Signature Editions which features her favorite flute repertoire. Ms. Wincenc was First Prize Winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Solo Flute Competition; she resides in New York City.  

Heidi Lehwalder, Harp
Artistic Director

“The main thing to tell you about Heidi is that she is simply a genius.”
- Leonard Bernstein, Nov. 1963

Heidi Lehwalder, harpist, has performed as guest artist with more than 65 orchestras throughout the United States and Canada, including the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, as well as with the symphonies of Phoenix, Buffalo, Louisville, Wichita, Savanna, Syracuse, and Honolulu. She has made 55 appearances as soloist with the Seattle Symphony and has collaborated with conductors Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Abbado, Erich Leinsdorf, Arthur Fiedler, Gerard Schwarz, Lucas Foss, Andre Kostelanetz, Dennis Russell Davies, and Charles Dutoit. Her recent performances included a 10-city tour with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and two performances at Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

An esteemed chamber musician, Lehwalder has performed in numerous concerts with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 1972 to the present. She has participated in the Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, Santa Fe, and Spoleto Festivals. Lehwalder is the only harpist ever to be invited to tour with Rudolf Serkin’s famed Music from Marlboro. During the summer of 1987, she served as Professor of Harp in Korea’s First International Chamber Music Festival. As a member of the Orpheus Trio, she toured for eight years throughout North America and Europe with flutist Paula Robison and violist Scott Nickrenz. She has also toured extensively with flutist Carol Wincenc.

Lehwalder is the inspiration for numerous harp concerti, both written for and dedicated to her, including Jose Serebrier’s Colores Magicos, Roberto Caamano’s Concerto for Harp, and Michael Colgrass’ Auras, as well as Sheila Silver’s From Darkness Emerging for harp and string quartet.

As a recording artist, Lehwalder has recorded for RCA, RCA Red Seal, CRI, Nonesuch, and Vanguard. Her collaborations include recordings with the Orpheus Trio, The Philadelphia Singers, Benedita Valente, Maureen Forrester, James Galway, Richard Stolzman, and the Tokyo String Quartet. She has appeared on national television on the Firestone Hour, Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, NBC’s Today Show, CBS Cable with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and PBS, both in joint recital with the Annapolis Brass Quintet and during the 1998-99 season as part of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Star-Studded 30th Anniversary Gala.

Lehwalder is the Founder and was the Artistic Director of the Fredericksburg Festival of the Arts, which has been nationally broadcast on Classical WETA 90.9 FM in Washington, DC for 17 years. She also has served as Artistic Director of Belle Arte Concerts in Seattle and as Artistic Administrator of the Seattle International Music Festival. Lehwalder was Professor of Harp at the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia from 2003 to 2006. From 2007 to 2011 Lehwalder served as Professor of Harp at The School of Music at the University of Washington. While teaching there, she created an enormously popular chamber music course which incorporated coaching all instrumentalists, culminating in three performances open to the public each year. She has given numerous master classes throughout the United States including The Juilliard School of Music, The Curtis Institute of Music, The Manhattan School of Music, and Boston University.

Lehwalder is the recipient of a Ford Foundation Grant, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, and has the distinction of being the first recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize.

Heidi Lehwalder was the last student of master harpist Carlos Salzedo who passed away the day before her last lesson. They worked intensely together for two summers when she was 10 and 11 as he prepared her for the Second International Harp Competition in Tel Aviv, Israel where she won a major prize.

Ms. Lehwalder has recently moved to the Los Angeles area, where she will expand her teaching both privately and by conducting master classes. She also looks forward to collaborating with young harpists and other instrumentalists teaching them the fine art of chamber music.  

Visit Heidi Lehwalder's website for more information.

Jill Felber, Flute

Jill Felber has been hailed for her "beautifully finished performances" by The Detroit News and has been praised by Musical America for her "handsome performance." The British journal PAN writes, "Felber was stunning..not only refined but also full of fun."

"The incredible flutist...the dazzling flutist...the radiant flutist Jill Felber" (Santa Barbara Independent), who is known to excite audiences everywhere in concerts and recitals, "played with flair" (Los Angeles Times).

"The outstanding American flutist Jill Felber" (Gazeta Rybnicka, Poland) is acclaimed worldwide for her "consummate musicianship" (Fanfare).

Ms. Felber has performed solo recitals, chamber music, and concertos on four continents and has held residencies in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy, Canada and the United States. Also a tireless promoter of new music, Ms. Felber has inspired many composers to write solo and chamber works for her and for her flute duo ZAWA!, and is currently engaged in several commissioning projects. She has premiered over three hundred works for the flute and has released world premiere recordings for Centaur Records, CRI, Neuma Records, and ZAWA! MUSIC.

In demand as a guest clinician because of her extraordinary motivational teaching style, Ms. Felber is currently Professor of Flute at UC Santa Barbara. Holding degrees from University of Michigan and Bowling Green State University, Ms. Felber has taught on the faculties of Ohio University, Capital University, and Wright State University. Her teachers include Keith Bryan, Judith Bentley, Samuel Baron, and James Galway.