FLUTING

I fell in love with the flute in 1981, shortly after hearing the junior high school band perform “Camptown Races.” My parents picked up my first flute at The Bandstand, in Edmonton, Alberta. It was $295 and they made me promise that I’d play for at last three years. Little did they know that I’d still be playing flute, forty years later.

I’d say that $295 was a good investment (actually, I’d have said it was a good investment even if I just played for a single year; music is always a good investment).

Principal flutist of the Portland Baroque Orchestra from 1999-2007, I have also performed with numerous Canadian and American ensembles, including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Vancouver), The Burney Ensemble (Vancouver), Ensemble Arion (Montréal) and Les voix humaines(Montréal).

I have appeared as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician for such organisations as the Toronto Symphony, Hallé Orchestra (Manchester, UK), Festival Vancouver, Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Early Music Vancouver, the Early Music Society of the Islands and the Fringe Festival of the Holland Festival Oude Muziek (Utrecht, The Netherlands).

Since moving to Atlantic Canada, I have been fortunate to be invited to perform as a guest musician with the Hot Earth Ensemble, and have also appeared at the annual conferences of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

I released my debut solo CD, featuring virtuoso repertoire by the François Devienne, first flute professor of the Paris Conservatoire, in 2004. In addition to this, I appear on bachcircle, produced by The Burney Ensemble (2001), as well as on a number of recordings with the Portland Baroque Orchestra.

My educational background in music includes a Master of Music degree (Indiana), as well as a postgraduate diploma (Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK) and a Certificate in Early Music (Royal Conservatory, The Hague). My teachers include Wilbert Hazelzet, Rachel Brown, Peter Lloyd, Kate Lukas and Barbara Kallaur.

TEACHING

As an experienced flute teacher, ensemble coach, and clinician, I have taught students of all ages and abilities, from adult amateur recorder enthusiasts to doctoral level flute students. I have taught in a variety of settings, from private studio lessons to university graduate seminars. 

A sessional instructor at the School of Music, University of British Columbia from 1999-2008, I have also taught at the University of Wales (now Bangor University, Bangor, UK), Chetham’s School of Music (Manchester, UK), and the Vancouver Early Music Workshop.

Since moving to St. John’s, I have periodically appeared as a guest teacher for flute, chamber music, and musicology classes at the university, and, in 2018, gave a guest lecture for the Centre for Music, Media, and Place (MMaP). In 2021, during the global pandemic, I was a guest masterclass clinician for the Flutes on the Edge initiative, which sought to unite flute players and teachers across Newfoundland and Labrador.

I currently play on a Rudall Carte flute made in London in 1922.