Carol Wincenc IT'S GOLDEN! Celebrates The Flutist's Five Decades On The Concert Stage
By: A.A. Cristi Sep. 26, 2019
Carol Wincenc is one of the most respected and acclaimed flutists performing today. A Grammy-nominated artist, she has performed worldwide with major orchestras and at name festivals and has collaborated as a chamber musician with star ensembles and soloists. Her virtuosity, deeply heartfelt musicality, and ebullient charisma have combined to make her that rare musician - a successful solo flutist - for five decades.
Carol Wincenc 50th Anniversary: It's Golden! is a three-concert New York series that celebrates this milestone in the 2019-20 season, and highlights the most cherished aspect of her artistic life with the world premieres of five new works commissioned for the occasion. Carol's deep commitment to the expansion of the flute repertoire is evidenced by the 15 concertos (by Christopher Rouse, Henryk Górecki, Joan Tower, and Jake Heggie, among others), nine chamber works, and 22 solo flute pieces that have been commissioned either by or for her during her career, and the five new works bring the total number to 51. They are:
Jake Heggie - Full Circle Fifty for Flute, Cello, and Piano (Nov. 12, 2019, at The Morgan)
Pierre Jalbert - Air in Motion for Flute and String Quartet (Nov. 12, 2019, at The Morgan)
Sato Matsui - Goldenrod for Flute and Piano (Feb. 23, 2020, at Merkin Concert Hall)
Robert Sirota - Dancing With the Angels for Flute, Viola, and Harp (Feb. 23, 2020, at Merkin Concert Hall)
Larry Alan Smith - Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Viola, Cello and Piano (April 16, 2020, at Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University)
A stellar group of performers are Carol's collaborators at these concerts. Jake Heggie is the pianist for his own work (Escher String Quartet cellist Brook Speltz joins), and the Escher String Quartet joins Carol for the Pierre Jalbert, at The Morgan Library and Museum (Nov. 12, 2019). Carol's longtime trio Les Amies, with Cynthia Phelps, viola, and Nancy Allen, harp (both New York Philharmonic principal players), performs the Robert Sirota work, and Carol's longtime collaborator Bryan Wagorn, piano, joins her for the Sato Matsui piece, at Merkin Concert Hall, on a program that is part of the "Only at Merkin with Terrance McKnight" series hosted by the WQXR evening host (Feb. 23, 2020). And for Larry Alan Smith's new work at the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University, Carol is joined by James Austin Smith, oboe; Matt Lipman, viola; Mihai Marica, cello (all three are members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center); and Hsin-Chiao Liao, piano (April 16, 2020). Also joining Carol at the April 16 concert are students from her studios at The Juilliard School and Stony Brook University - graduates and current students - as well as close friends and colleagues both professional and amateur.
In addition to the brand-new works, the series' programs also feature recent works written for Carol, including Daniel Paget's Romania! Fantasy for flute and piano, and Andrew Thomas's A Samba! for solo flutes, flute choir, and ensemble, as well as flute masterworks such as the Mozart Flute Quartet in C Major, Bach's Sonata in B minor, Debussy's Syrinx and his Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune arranged for flute and piano. The three concerts are:
CAROL WINCENC 50TH ANNIVERSARY: IT'S GOLDEN!
Tuesday, November 12, 2019, at 7:00 pm at The Morgan Library and Museum
Carol Wincenc 50th Anniversary: It's Golden! - Concert 1
Carol Wincenc, flute
Jake Heggie, piano
Escher String Quartet (Adam Barnett-Hart & Brendan Speltz, violin; Pierre Lapointe, viola; Brook Speltz, cello)
CLAUDE DEBUSSY Syrinx for Solo Flute
Ten-minute excerpt from Leonard Yakir film Carol Wincenc: The Ruby Concerts
JAKE HEGGIE Full Circle Fifty for Flute, Cello, and Piano (World premiere)* with Brook Speltz, cello
W. A. MOZART Flute Quartet in C Major
PIERRE JALBERT Air in Motion for Flute and String Quartet (World premiere)*
*works commissioned by Carol Wincenc
Sunday, February 23, 2020, at 5:00 pm at Merkin Concert Hall
Carol Wincenc 50th Anniversary: It's Golden! - Concert 2:
"Only at Merkin with Terrance McKnight - Carol Wincenc, flute"
Carol Wincenc, flute
Bryan Wagorn, piano
Les Amies (Carol Wincenc, flute; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Nancy Allen, harp)
Terrance McKnight, host
CLAUDE DEBUSSY Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune arranged for Flute and Piano
SATO MATSUI Goldenrod for Flute and Piano (World premiere)*
ROBERT SIROTA Dancing With the Angels for Flute, Viola, and Harp (World premiere)*
*works commissioned by Carol Wincenc
Thursday, April 16, 2020, at 7:00 pm at Staller Center at Stony Brook University
Carol Wincenc 50th Anniversary: It's Golden! - Concert 3
Carol Wincenc, flute
Hsin-Chiao Liao, piano
James Austin Smith, oboe
Matt Lipman, viola
Mihai Marica, cellist
Flute students, colleagues, and friends
BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ Sonata for Flute and Piano
J. S. BACH Sonata in B minor BWV 1030
GABRIEL FAURE Morceau de Concours
GEORGE ENESCU Cantabile et presto for Flute and Piano
LARRY ALAN SMITH Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Viola, Cello and Piano (World premiere)*
DANIEL PAGET Romania! Fantasy for Flute and Piano*
ANDREW THOMAS A Samba! for Solo Flutes, Flute Choir, Percussion, String Quintet, Harp, Piano*
*works commissioned by Carol Wincenc
Carol Wincenc: The Ruby Concerts Documentary
Carol Wincenc: The Ruby Concerts is a one-hour documentary by filmmaker Leonard Yakir that focuses on Carol's 40th anniversary in 2009-10, which she celebrated with a three-concert New York series. The DVD of the documentary will be on sale at the concerts.
Additional world premieres in 2019-20
In addition to the five works commissioned for the season, Carol will perform the premieres of two more works for flute and piano: Five Andean Improvisations for Flute and Piano by Gabriela Lena Frank to honor the 100th anniversary of the New York Flute Club on November 17, 2019, at Merkin Concert Hall; and one by Valerie Coleman for the Flute New Music Consortium, on January 18, 2020, at the Staller Arts Center at Stony Brook.
Misericordia - Carol plays works for flute by Yuko Uebayashi - a new Azica Records release
Carol's latest recording, released in August, is a disc of three works by Yuko Uebayashi: Misericordia for flute and string quartet (2013); Au-delà du Temps for two flutes and piano (2002); and Town Lights for two flutes and piano (2007). She is joined on the recording by the Escher String Quartet; Tanya Dusevic Witek, flute; Stephen Gosling, piano; and Emile Naoumoff, piano. Uebayashi, born in Japan and living in France, composes a great deal for the flute.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8659871--misericordia
Carol has just completed her second Creating Resonance Flute Retreat at the Rochester Folk Art Guild in Rochester, NY; see her Instagram page for photos and videos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B2rXASXga5D/
Carol Wincenc is one of the most respected and acclaimed flutists performing today. Her musicianship is matched by a deep commitment to expanding the flute repertoire. For her "Ruby Anniversary," a celebration of her 40th year on the concert stage, she performed six world premieres; new works written for her by composers Jonathan Berger, Shih-Hui Chen, Andrea Clearfield, Jake Heggie, Thea Musgrave, and Joan Tower. Three of the works - Joan Tower's Rising, Andrea Clearfield's ...and low to the lake falls home..., and Jake Heggie's Fury of Light, have been recorded by Wincenc since their premieres. "You might think that in celebrating a four-decade concert career, the flutist Carol Wincenc would opt to anthologize past achievements," said The New York Times in a review of the culminating event. "To the contrary, in two previous concerts during what she has termed her Ruby Anniversary Series, Ms. Wincenc has emphasized her lasting involvement with contemporary music." (Read the entire review here: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/arts/music/02carol.html'searchResultPosition=1.)
Over the decades, Carol Wincenc has commissioned and premiered numerous works that have become mainstays of the flute repertoire, including concertos written for her by Christopher Rouse, Henryk Górecki, Joan Tower, and Lukas Foss, among others. Ms. Wincenc gave the world premiere of Gorecki's Concerto Cantata, which she has also recorded, at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and the U.S. premiere with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She is in demand for her interpretation Lukas Foss's Renaissance Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, a work written for her, and has premiered concerti by Peter Schickele, Joan Tower, Paul Schoenfeld and Tobias Picker, who composed The Rain In the Trees, a double concerto for her and soprano Barbara Hendricks inspired by the rainforest poems of W.S. Merwin. In a Naumburg Foundation Valentine's Day recital in New York's Merkin Concert Hall in 1998, she premiered ten short "valentines" written for her by Tower, Sierra, and Michael Torke, among others.
Ms. Wincenc has appeared with the St. Louis, Atlanta, and Seattle Symphonies; the Los Angeles and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras; and at the Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Spoleto, Caramoor, Marlboro, Sarasota, and Music @ Menlo festivals. Overseas, Ms. Wincenc has given acclaimed performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, and at the Aldeburgh, Budapest, Tivoli, and Frankfurt international music festivals. Ms. Wincenc has collaborated with the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo and Cleveland String Quartets; performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, sopranos Jessye Norman and Elly Ameling; pianist Emanuel Ax; and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Carol Wincenc is flutist with the New York Woodwind Quintet and the Les Amies trio.
Ms. Wincenc created and directed a series of International Flute Festivals at the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul. The overwhelming success of these festivals, which featured such diverse artists as Jean-Pierre Rampal, Herbie Mann, and American-Indian flutist R. Carlos Nakai, led to a celebrated U.S. tour with performances in New York and San Francisco.
Carol Wincenc is a prolific recording artist; her debut solo album on the Music Masters label was in collaboration with pianist Andras Schiff, and cited by Stereo Review as a "Recording of Special Merit." She performed on the Grammy Award-winning 2005 Naxos recording of works by Yehudi Wyner with Richard Stoltzman and other renowned colleagues. Her recording of Christopher Rouse's Flute Concerto for Telarc with Christoph Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony won the Diapason d'Or. Her recording of the Mozart Flute Quartets on the Deutsche Grammophon label with the Emerson Quartet is regarded as one of the definitive interpretations of these works.
Ms. Wincenc is a professor of flute at both The Juilliard School and Stony Brook University. She often serves as a judge for prestigious competitions, including, in 2009, the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and the Kobe International Flute Competition. This year she led her second annual Creating Resonance Flute Retreat at the Rochester Folk Art Guild in Rochester, NY, described as "a weekend of learning and sharing through masterclasses and individual sessions, with a focus on finding flute resonance through body, mind, breath, release and relationships."
Lauren Keiser Music Publishers (LKM) and Carl Fischer publish the Carol Wincenc Signature Editions, featuring her favorite flute repertoire as well as the staples of flute methods and etudes.
Carol Wincenc is a native of Buffalo, New York. Her father was a conductor and music professor and her mother a pianist. Wincenc began studies on the violin at four and the flute at age nine. Progress was rapid: as a teenager she studied with Italian virtuoso Severino Gazzelloni and then with Robert Willoughby at Oberlin. Post-graduate studies were at the Manhattan School of Music with Harold Bennett and at Juilliard under Arthur Lora and Samuel Baron. She also worked over a decade with the legendary French flute master and co-founder of the Marlboro Music Festival, Marcel Moyse. Wincenc was a Concert Artist Guild Winner in 1972 and First Prize Winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Solo Flute Competition in 1978.
A longtime resident of New York City, she is the proud mother of singer/songwriter Nicola Wincenc (Cavernsband.com).
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