Hailed “Queen of the flute” by New York Magazine, flutist Carol Wincenc was first prize winner of the (sole) Naumburg Solo Flute Competition, as well as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from both the China and USA National Flute Associations, the National Society of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Music, and Distinguished Alumni Award from Manhattan School of Music. Known for her “pioneer-ing” efforts to enhance the repertoire for flute, she has commissioned over 55 works, including the many of the now celebrated concerti for flute and orchestra by Christopher Rouse, Lukas Foss, Joan Tower, Henryk Gorecki, and Jake Heggie. Numerous other works commissioned by Wincenc (for flute and/or with other instruments) include Tobias Picker, Peter Schickele, Roberto Sierra, Jennifer Higdon, Gabriela Lena Frank, Valerie Coleman, Yuko Uebayashi and Sato Matsui.
She has appeared as soloist with such ensembles as the Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and London symphonies, the BBC, Warsaw, and Buffalo philharmonics, as well as the Los Angeles, Stuttgart, and Saint Paul Chamber orchestras. An exclusive BURKART Flutes Artist, she has performed in countless festivals such as Mostly Mozart, Aldeburgh, Budapest, Frankfurt, Santa Fe, Spoleto, Music at Menlo, Aspen, Yale/Norfolk, Sarasota, Banff, and Marlboro. A Grammy nominee, she has received a Diapason d’Or Award, a Recording of Special Merit award with András Schiff, and Gramophone magazine’s “Pick of the Month” with the Buffalo Philharmonic. She is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet and a founding member of Les Amies with harpist Nancy Allen and violist Cynthia Phelps.
For over 50 years collectively, Ms. Wincenc teaches on the faculties of The Juilliard School and Stony Brook University, and she is renowned for her popular series with Lauren Keiser Music Publishers, the Carol Wincenc 21st Century Flute. Please visit her website www.carolwincencflute.com