Carol Wincenc
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 the both the USA and China National Flute Associations, the National Society of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Music, Distinguished Alumni Awards from the Brevard Festival Music Center and Manhattan School of Music, and the Martha Graham Dance Company "Five Fearless Women" Award. During the 2019-22 seasons she celebrated a half century as an international, concertizing artist at The Morgan Library and Museum, Merkin Concert Hall and the Staller Center for the Arts of Stony Brook University.
With over 60 compositions commissioned by or written for Ms. Wincenc, for her 50th Golden Anniversary Legacy Series she premiered five new works by Jake Heggie, Pierre Jalbert, Robert Sirota, Larry Alan Smith and Sato Matsui. As part of this grand celebration was the release of the all-Yuko Uebayashi album,"Misericordia", on Azica Records with the Escher String Quartet. Recently as part of the "Naumburg Looks Back Series" she performed at Carnegie's Weill Hall with her collaborator/pianist Bryan Wagorn of the Metropolitan Opera. During this season she also did the world premieres of Gabriela Lena Frank's Five Andean Improvisations and Valerie Coleman's Amazonia.
Her 2023 performances included concertizing in Bulgaria and France, as well as with acclaimed singer Susan Graham and Music from Copland House at The Kennedy Center, University of Chicago, Middlebury, Penn State, Santa Fe and Tanglewood. Additional performances and appearances were at the National Flute Association Phoenix Convention (with the world premiere of Matsui's Goldenrod Concerto), the Belgrade Serbian Flute Society Convention and a vast tour in Seoul and four cities in Taiwan, culminating in a formal recital at the Taipei National Concert Hall.
In celebration for her 35th Juilliard Anniversary at Lincoln Center’s Juilliard School, she performed with Nancy Allen, New York Philharmonic Principal Harpist, Jake Heggie, pianist/composer and the New Asia Chamber Music Society.
Upcoming 2024 appearances feature Ms. Wincenc at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention in Washington DC, the Tampere, Finland, "Legends" Flute Convention, and tours to Duke, Shenandoah, Salem, and East Carolina Universities. and her hometown, Buffalo, NY.
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. 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 for her recording of the Rouse Flute Concerto with the Houston Symphony, a Recording of Special Merit Award with pianist 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 both Les Amies with New York Philharmonic Principals, harpist Nancy Allen and violist Cynthia Phelps and the Gossamer Trio with Allen and Claire Marie Solomon, cellist.Cited a "legendary" pedagogue, Ms. Wincenc continues to teach on the faculties of The Juilliard School and Stony Brook University for over a half century combined,. She is renowned for her popular series with Lauren Keiser Music Publishers, the Carol Wincenc 21st Century Flute.
Nothing gives her greater pleasure than collaborating with colleagues, and her current and former students, including international concertizing soloists, prominent university professors and orchestral players, worldwide.