Lorna McGhee!
Lorna performed the Dances with the Winds Concerto by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara with the Pittsburg Symphony in November 2024. This Concerto features alto and bass flute, as well as c flute and piccolo. She will be sharing her thoughts on this “magical and deeply powerful piece” and sharing an alto improvisation similar to what she uses for patients in hospital settings. Her appearance at the Low Flutes Festival is sponsored by Arista Flutes who made her altos’s headjoint. https://www.aristaflutes.com
Lorna McGhee has been appointed principal flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra beginning with the 2024-2025 season. She was previously appointed by Manfred Honeck as principal flute of the Pittsburgh Symphony, with which she recorded symphonies of Beethoven, Bruckner, Brahms, Dvořák, and Tchaikovsky, as well as the PSO’s Grammy award-winning Shostakovich Symphony No. 5. She has performed as guest principal with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, among others. Before emigrating to North America, McGhee was co-principal flute of the London’s BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Ali Ryerson
With a career spanning over five decades, jazz flutist Ali Ryerson consistently ranks among the top flutists in the prestigious Downbeat Jazz Poll. Born in 1952 in New York, Ali grew up in a musical family. Her father, Art Ryerson, was a renowned jazz guitarist who got his start during the Big Band era.
Ali has successfully carried on the family tradition, becoming an international touring and recording artist, with performances ranging from Carnegie Hall to the famed Blue Note jazz club (NY and Japan) to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., plus festival and club appearances worldwide. Ryerson has released over two dozen albums on major labels, including Concord Records, Capri Records, and Red Baron (for legendary jazz producer, Bob Thiele).
Ryerson has worked with jazz greats such as Red Rodney, Hubert Laws, Roy Haynes, Kenny Barron, Frank Wess, Holly Hofmann, Stephane Grappelli, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, as well as classical artists Julius Baker and, while principal flutist with the Monterey Bay Symphony, with Luciano Pavarotti. Ryerson had a long-time collaboration with renowned jazz guitarist, Joe Beck, with whom she toured and recorded for nearly a decade.
Matthias Ziegler
Matthias Ziegler is one of the world’s most versatile and innovative flutists. He is committed both to the traditional literature for flute as well as to contemporary music and concepts that cross the boundaries between classical music and jazz.
Accordingly, his performances take place in a vast range of contexts: he plays principal flute with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, has toured with the percussionist Pierre Favre and performed with the pianist George Gruntz as well as with the American contrabass player Mark Dresser. He is also a member of the ”Collegium Novum Zurich“, where he has worked with Mauricio Kagel, Heinz Holliger and George Crumb.
Concert tours have brought him to the US, Japan, Australia, South America and Israel. Many recordings on CD document his inclusive musical interests.
Searching for new sounds he enormously broadened the expressive potential of the traditional flute and the electroacoustically amplified contrabass flute.
Matthias Ziegler performs on a flute manufactured by Louis Lot (1880), on a quartertone flute Brannen/Kingma system, on a Alto- and Bassflute by Eva Kingma (Holland) as well as on his own invention, the ”Matusiflute”, a uniquely designed instrument with a vibrating membrane. His contrabassflute has been constructed by Kotato Fukushima (Japan).
Appearance Sponsored by Eva Kingma.
International Low Flutes Festival 