Marina Piccinini

Piccinini, Marina

Marina Piccinini. Flutist, b Madison, Wisc, 10 Mar 1963; B MUS (Juilliard) 1985, M MUS (Juilliard) 1985. She grew up in St John's, Nfld, and then studied at the University of Toronto with Jeanne Baxtresser for two years. In 1980 she studied in Zurich with Günther Rumpel for 6 months. In 1982 she moved to New York, where Julius Baker was her teacher at the Juilliard School. She has won many competitions, including the CBC Young Performers Competition in 1986 and first prize in the Concert Artists Guild International New York Competition in the same year. In 1991 she became the first flutist ever to win the Avery Fisher career grant in the USA.

Piccinini has been heard on CBC radio and TV, and on West German and New York radio. She has given recitals in Canada, Switzerland, New York, Tokyo, and at the Marlboro Festival, and has appeared with the Calgary Philharmonic, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and the Berne Chamber Orchestra, among others. She toured Europe in 1987, and made her London debut in the 1987-8 season.

Piccinini has premiered Gary Kulesha'sFlute Concertino with the University of Toronto Wind Symphony in 1981, Peter Paul Koprowski'sA Sonnet for Laura in 1989, and Jon Kimura Parker's Pan Dreams in 1990. In 1985 she participated in two recordings of music by James Cohn, Four Sonatas With Piano (XNLT Music LP-1) and Music for 3,4, and 5 Winds (XNLT Music LP-2). In 1987 she premiered Michael C. Baker's Concerto for Flute and Strings; she also recorded this work with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra (1988, CBC SMCD-5107). In 1991 she was based in New York. She is married to the pianist Andreas Haefliger.