About Marina Piccinini

Widely recognized as one of the world’s leading flute virtuosos, flutist Marina Piccinini combines flawless technical command, profound interpretive instincts and a charismatic stage presence, qualities that make each of her performances a memorable event. Since making her acclaimed debuts at New York’s Town Hall, London’s Southbank Centre and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Ms. Piccinini has been in demand as a soloist with orchestras around the world.,including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Hannover Symphony, the Ravenna Chamber Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Soloists; as well as the Cincinnati, New World, Toronto, Vancouver, Detroit, Phoenix, and Milwaukee symphony orchestras. She has worked with such conductors as Alan Gilbert, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Pierre Boulez, Leonard Slatkin, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Peter Oundjian, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Myung-whun Chung and Gianandrea Noseda. Recent recital appearances include London’s Wigmore Hall, Tokyo’s Casals Hall, the Seoul Arts Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington and the Mozart Saal in Vienna’s Konzerthaus. Deeply committed to the music of the present, Ms Piccinini has given first performances of works by Michael Colgrass, Paquito D’Rivera, Matthew Hindson, Miguel Kertsman, Lukas Foss, Michael Torke, John Harbison, Marc-André Dalbavie, David Ludwig and Roberto Sierra. A devoted chamber musician, Marina Piccinini is a founding member of Tre Voci with violist Kim Kashkashian and harpist Sivan Magen, and the trio has made an ECM recording. She has collaborated with the Tokyo, Brentano, Mendelssohn, and Takács string quartets, with the Percussion ensemble Nexus and is a regular partner of pianists as Andreas Haefliger and Mitsuko Uchida. A resident artist at the Marlboro Festival for many years, she tours with Musicians From Marlboro and has also performed at the Salzburg Festival, Mostly Mozart, Aspen, Aldeburgh, Santa Fe, Spoleto (Italy), La Jolla, Newport, Davos, Tivoli, Rheingau, Moritzburg, Kuhmo, and Hong Kong festivals, among others. A frequent guest artist in Japan, Ms. Piccinini has performed (at the personal invitation of Seiji Ozawa) at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan, and has appeared with Mitsuko Uchida in a series of concerts at Suntory Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall,Zankel Hall. A recent European tour included appearances at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Köln Philharmonie and Barbican Centre in London. Ms. Piccinini has also been Guest Principal Flute with both the Boston Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. Ms. Piccinini’s recent recordings include a DVD of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire from the Salzburg Festival, along with an accompanying Documentary entiteled Solar Plexus of Modernism; for AVIE, the complete flute sonatas of J.S. Bach (including the solo Partita) in collaboration with the Brasil Guitar Duo and the flute sonatas of Prokofiev and Franck (with pianist Andreas Haefliger); and for Claves, ‘Belle Époque’ (Paris, 1880-1913), with pianist Anne Epperson (Claves) and sonatas by Bartók, Martinu, Schulhoff, Dohnányi and Taktakishvili (with pianist Eva Kupiec ). The first flutist to win the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant from Lincoln Center, Marina Piccinini’s 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. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including Musical , the McMeen-Smith Award, twice the NEA‘s Solo Recitalist Grant, America’s ‘Young Artist to Watch’ the BP Artist Career Award, and various grants from the Canada Council. She was also winner of the New York Flute Club competition and the National Arts Club Competition. Ms. Piccinini began her flute studies in Toronto with Jeanne Baxtresser, received her BM and MM degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with the legendary flutist Julius Baker, and worked with Aurèle Nicolet and Ernst Haefliger in Switzerland. She gives masterclasses around the world 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. Ms. Piccinini is a 36th generation Shaolin Fighting Monk, and with her family divides her time between Vienna and New York.