Arts and Entertainment

Michigan flutist to perform as part of Penn State Flute Day

Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Interlochen Arts Academy flute professor Nancy Stagnitta will present a recital at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 6, in 110 Music Building I. Appearing on campus as a guest artist for the annual Penn State Flute Day, she also will present a masterclass at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7, in 128 Music Building II. Admission is free.

A classically trained flutist, the first half of Stagnitta's recital includes works by Griffes, Dohnanyi, and Francis Poulenc. She is joined by collaborative pianist Joanne Yang. Also well-known as a jazz flutist, her final set features compositions accompanied by a jazz combo. Admission is free.

For more information on Penn State Flute Day, please see the Penn State School of Music's website.

Program

— Poem - Charles Griffes

— Sonata Appassionata - Sigfrid Karg-Elert  

— Aria - Erno Dohnanyi  

— Sonata - Francis Poulenc

— Beautiful Love - Victor Young

— Black Orpheus - Luis Bonfa

— Birdbrain Blues - Nancy Stagnitta

Stagnitta is instructor of flute and chamber music at Interlochen Arts Academy, artist/faculty at the Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival in Italy, and principal flutist with the Traverse Symphony. Praised for her "brilliance and beauty of tone" by the Baltimore Sun, she was appointed as U.S.I.A. Artistic Ambassador to southern Africa, where she presented concerts and masterclasses in Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique and Namibia. She has also performed at the Shanghai Conservatory, the Biblioteca Universitaria di Napoli, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and on the Voice of America Broadcast Network. A two-time recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Solo Artist Award and a semi-finalist in the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition, she was recently featured on the cover of Flute Talk magazine.

Stagnitta formerly served as piccoloist with the Sarasota and Baltimore Opera Orchestras, extra player with the Baltimore Symphony, and has performed as concerto soloist with the National Gallery Orchestra. She collaborates with Paula Robison and Judith Mendenhall to host the annual Interlochen Flute Institute, and has offered masterclasses at the Shanghai Conservatory, the University of Texas-Austin and University of Colorado-Boulder among many others. She has also served as artist/faculty at the Montecito, Hot Springs, and Quartz Mountain Music Festivals.

Active as a jazz flutist, Stagnitta was a featured jazz soloist at the National Flute Association (NFA) convention in Chicago in 2014, and has been invited to perform as both recitalist and jazz artist at previous NFA Conventions held in New York City, Las Vegas, San Diego, Anaheim, Kansas City and Washington, D.C. She has recorded the music of contemporary American women composers for Capstone records, and released a jazz recording with Chamber Music America Jazz Composition Award winner Rob Levit. Her performances have been heard on National Public Radio's WETA in Washington, D.C. and KING FM in Seattle. As a result of her holistic approach to teaching, and to an ongoing collaboration with the dance and physics departments at Interlochen, she was invited to present a lecture on the relationship among body alignment, resonance, and injury prevention at the 2011 Performing Artist and Athlete Science Symposium.

Stagnitta earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the Peabody Institute, where she received the Ashworth Prize. Her teachers include Robert Willoughby, Timothy Day, Mark Sparks and Beatrice Keram.

Nancy Stagnitta, flute Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated October 2, 2017