Marina Piccininiadds another World Premiere written for her, by one of today’s foremost composers, to her list of first performances Pulitzer Prize-winner Aaron Jay Kernis’ Flute Concerto, January 21, 22, and 23, 2016 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Virtuoso flutist Marina Piccinini adds another first performance by one of today’s foremost composers to her resume this January 2016, when of she appears with world-renowned conductor Leonard Slatkin and America’s fourth oldest orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, to give the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Aaron Jay Kernis’ Flute Concerto.  Well-known for her commitment to new music and her history of first performances and commissions by some of today’s most renowned composers, Flute Concerto, an approximately 25-minute, four movement piece (Portrait; Pastorale-Barcarolle, Pavan, Tarantella), is the latest work written specifically for the internationally acclaimed artist.

New York State and Summer Festival premieres of the Kernis Flute Concerto follow this season: February 4, 5, 6 she gives the New York State Premiere with Music Director Ward Stare and the Rochester Philharmonic, and on August 4, 2016, the Summer Festival Premiere with conductor JoAnn Falletta and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, in the 2016-17 season, Ms. Piccinini will perform the UK Premiere of the Kernis Flute Concerto with the London Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor Andres Orozco-Estrada on February 11, 2017, and again on April 15, 2017 with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin conducting.

Hailed as “the Heifetz of the flute” by Gramophone magazine, Marina Piccinini is praised as a daring and elegant artist. Internationally acclaimed for her interpretive skills, rich, expansive colors, and compelling stage presence, Ms. Piccinini has given first performances of works by some of today’s celebrated composers, including Michael Colgrass, Paquito D’Rivera, Matthew Hindson, Miguel Kertsman, Lukas Foss, Michael Torke, John Harbison, David Ludwig and Roberto Sierra. Among the celebrated conductors with whom she has worked are Alan Gilbert, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Pierre Boulez, Leonard Slatkin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Peter Oundjian, Hans Graf, Roberto Minczuk, and Myung-whun Chung and Gianandrea Noseda.

Additional performances this spring/summer 2016 include a five-state US recital tour with pianist Andreas Haefliger in mid-February with concerts for Akron, Ohio’s Tuesday Musical Association, DC’s Washington Performing Arts at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, University of Florida Performing Arts Series in Gainsville, the Peggy Rockefeller Concert Series in New York City, and the Soundings: New Music at the Nasher series in Dallas, Texas, chamber music performances in Germany and Belgium, and a return to the Galway Flute Festival in Weggis, Switzerland.

An active recording artist with CDs on the Avie, Claves, and ECM labels, Ms. Piccinini is the latest in a distinguished line of virtuosos to make the Paganini Caprices their own. Her new Paganini arrangements can be heard on her recent highly acclaimed recording for Avie. The printed music for Piccinini’s Paganini arrangements was published in autumn 2014 by Schott Music. Other recent recordings include Tre Voci’s acclaimed debut CD of works by Toru Takemitsu, Claude Debussy and Sofia Gubaidulina on the ECM label; a DVD of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire from the Salzburg Festival, along with an accompanying documentary entitled Solar Plexus of Modernism; for Avie, the J.S.Bach’s complete flute sonatas and solo Partita in collaboration with the Brasil Guitar Duo, and the flute sonatas of Prokofiev and Franck with pianist Andreas Haefliger; and for Claves, Belle Époque with pianist Anne Epperson, and sonatas by Bartok, Martinu, Schulhoff, Dohnanyi, and Taktakishvili with pianist Eva Kupiec.

Among Marina Piccinini’s many honors and awards are the Avery Fisher Career Grant (first flutist to win the prestigious grant), First Prize, CBC Young Performers Competition in Canada, and First Prize, New York’s Concert Artists Guild International Competition.  Ms. Piccinini began her flute studies in Toronto with Jeanne Baxtresser and later received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with the legendary flutist Julius Baker. She also worked with renowned musicians flutist Aurele Nicolet, and tenor Ernst Haefliger in Switzerland.