Marina Piccinini flutist 2015-16 Biography December 2015 (595 words)

A daring artist with diverse musical interests, virtuoso flutist Marina Piccinini is in demand worldwide as a soloist, chamber musician and recording artist. Internationally acclaimed for her interpretive skills, rich, expansive colors, technical command and elegant, compelling stage presence, Ms. Piccinini has been hailed by Gramophone as “the Heifetz of the flute”.

Well-known for her commitment to new music and her history of first performances and commissions by some of today’s foremost composers, Ms. Piccinini’ s 2015-16 season features several engagements of note, including a World Premiere: January 21, 22, 23, 2016 she performs the World Premiere of Pulitzer Prize–winner Aaron Jay Kernis’ Flute Concerto, written for her and performed with Music Director and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; February 4, 5, 6 she gives the New York State Premiere with Music Director Ward Stare and the Rochester Philharmonic and, followed by a five-state US recital tour with pianist Andreas Haefliger. 2016 spring/summer appearances include chamber music performances in Germany and Belgium, a return to the Galway Flute Festival in Weggis, Switzerland, and the Summer Festival Premiere of the Kernis Concerto with conductor JoAnn Falletta and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and on August 4, 2016.

Highlights of recent seasons include a highly acclaimed tour with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in January 2015, performing the Nielsen Flute Concerto four times under the baton of Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Also of note is the world premiere performance of Matthew Hindson's House Music, a concerto for flute and orchestra, with Roberto Minczuk and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Ms. Piccinini has performed with celebrated conductors including Alan Gilbert, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sieji Ozawa, , Pierre Boulez Leonard Slatkin, Myung-Whun Chung, and Gianandrea Noseda, among others.

Among the long list of esteemed orchestras with which Ms. Piccinini has appeared are the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Saint Louis Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Hannover Symphony, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The list of contemporary composers that Ms. Piccinini has given first performances of their works includes such distinguished names as Michael Colgrass, Paquito D’Rivera, Matthew Hindson, Miguel Kertsman, Lukas Foss, Michael Torke, John Harbison, David Ludwig and Roberto Sierra.

An active recording artist with CDs on the Avie, Claves, and ECM labels, Ms. Piccinini’s latest recording is of her own arrangements of the Paganini Caprices for Avie. Other recent recordings include Tre Voci’s acclaimed debut CD of works by Tōru Takemitsu, Claude Debussy and Sofia Gubaidulina on the ECM label; a DVD of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire from the Salzburg Festival a DVD of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire from the Salzburg Festival, and the flute sonatas of Prokofiev and Franck with pianist Andreas Haefliger (Avie).

The recipient of numerous awards, Marina Piccinini was the first flutist to win the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Her career was launched when she won First Prize in the CBC Young Performers Competition in Canada, and a year later, First Prize in New York’s Concert Artists Guild International Competition.

Marina Piccinini began her flute studies in Toronto with Jeanne Baxtresser, and later received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with the legendary flutist . She also worked with renowned musicians flutist Aurèle Nicolet and tenor Ernst Haefliger in Switzerland. A staunch supporter of education, Ms. Piccinini regularly gives masterclasses worldwide, and is currently on the faculty of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover, Germany.