Flute Day

Featured Guests & Collaborators

Conor Nelson | Flute

Praised for his “long-breathed phrases and luscious tone” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Canadian flutist Conor Nelson is established as a leading flutist and pedagogue of his generation. Since his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, he has frequently appeared as soloist and recitalist throughout the United States and abroad.

Solo engagements include concerti with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Flint Symphony, and numerous other orchestras. In addition to being the only wind player to win the Grand Prize at the WAMSO Young Artist Competition, he won first prize at the William C. Byrd Young Artist Competition. He also received top prizes at the New York Flute Club Young Artist Competition, the Haynes International Flute Competition as well as the Fischoff, Coleman, and Yellow Springs chamber music competitions.

With percussionist Ayano Kataoka, he performed at Merkin Concert Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Hall, and Izumi Hall. A recital at the Tokyo Opera City Hall received numerous broadcasts on NHK Television. Their CD “Breaking Training” was released on New Focus Recordings (New York City). His second CD, “Nataraja” with pianist Thomas Rosenkranz, is also available on New Focus. He has also recorded for the Centaur, Albany, and Toccata Classics (London) labels. Other recent releases include Telemann’s 12 Fantasias for solo flute, issued by Blue Griffin Recordings and Telemann’s Sonatas for Two Flutes with Eric Lamb for the paladino music label (Vienna).

He has collaborated with Claude Frank on the Schneider concert series in New York City and appeared at numerous chamber music festivals across the country including the OK Mozart, Bennington, Skaneateles, Yellow Barn, Cooperstown, Salt Bay, Look and Listen (NYC), Norfolk (Yale), Green Mountain, Chesapeake, and the Chamber Music Quad Cities series.

He is the principal flutist of the New Orchestra of Washington in Washington, D.C., and has performed with the Detroit, Toledo, and Tulsa Symphony Orchestras. He also performed as guest principal with A Far Cry, Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, and the Conceirtos de la Villa de Santo Domingo.

A respected pedagogue, Dr. Nelson has given masterclasses at over one hundred and fifty colleges, universities, and conservatories. Prior to his appointment at UW-Madison, he served as the flute professor at Bowling Green State University for nine years and as the assistant professor of flute at Oklahoma State University from 2007 to 2011. His recent residencies include Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China, the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, and the Associação Brasileira de Flautistas in São Paulo.

He is also a regular guest of the Texas Summer Flute Symposium and has been the featured guest artist for eleven flute associations across the country.

His former students can be found performing in orchestras, as well as teaching at colleges, universities, and public schools nationwide. They have also amassed over sixty prizes in young artist, concerto, and flute association competitions.

He received degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, and Stony Brook University where he was the winner of the school-wide concerto competitions at all three institutions. He is also a recipient of the Thomas Nyfenger Prize, the Samuel Baron Prize, and the Presser Award. His principal teachers include Carol Wincenc, Ransom Wilson, Linda Chesis, Susan Hoeppner, and Amy Hamilton. Conor is an artist with Powell Flutes and the flutist with the Wingra Wind Quintet at UW-Madison, one of the longest standing quintets in the nation.

Ryo Yanagitani | Piano

Hailed by The Washington Post as “A pianist’s pianist,” Ryo has established himself as one of Canada’s shining artists. His success includes winning the gold medal at the 10th San Antonio International Piano Competition, and garnering the grand prize at the Hugo Kauder International Piano Competition. Ryo has made concerto appearances with orchestras around the world, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Moroccan Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Kioi Symphonietta. His performances have taken him to such venues as the Kennedy Center, The National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and Salle Cortot in Paris, among others.

A recipient of many scholarships and awards, Ryo has been endowed twice by the Canadian Arts Council with a grant as an Emerging Artist, and is a recipient of the Arthur Foote Scholarship from the Harvard Musical Association. He was also awarded the Sony Foundation of America Career Grant through the Salon de Virtuosi of New York, and a Washington Award by the S&R Foundation of Washington, D.C. He has also released two solo CDs consisting of works by Chopin and Debussy, as well as a CD in collaboration with the cellist Dai Miyata in Japan.

Ryo Yanagitani received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music under Boris Berman, and an Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute under Sergei Babayan. He was a visiting assistant professor of piano at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and held the position of artistic director at the Ryuji Ueno Foundation in Washington, D.C., an organization that supports highly talented individuals in the field of the performing arts. He is currently a visiting adjunct assistant professor of collaborative piano at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia.

Schedule of Events

Schedule is subject to change.