Famous Flautists

Herbie Hancock was born in 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. He is an internationally acclaimed jazz pianist and composer who shaped modern jazz. His musical journey began with classical training as a child prodigy. He performed publicly for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. He later studied electrical engineering and music at Grinnell College before focusing on his music. Hancock achieved a professional breakthrough when he joined the Miles Davis Quintet in 1963.

India Arie Simpson, born October 3, 1975, is an American singer and songwriter. She has sold over 3.3 million records in the US and 10 million worldwide. She won four Grammy Awards from her 21 nominations, including Best R&B Album.

Candace Kita is an Asian-American actress.

Ann Dustin Wilson, born June 19, 1950, is an American musician. She is best known as the lead singer and songwriter for the rock band Heart. Hit Parader magazine listed Wilson among the "Top Heavy Metal Vocalists of All Time" in 2006. Wilson has a dramatic soprano vocal range.

Eric Allan Dolphy, Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and flautist. He occasionally played the clarinet and piccolo. Dolphy gained prominence as a multi-instrumentalist during his active years. His use of the bass clarinet helped establish its position in jazz. Dolphy expanded the vocabulary of the alto saxophone and was among the first significant jazz flute soloists. His improvisational style used wide intervals.

Edward McGuire is a Scottish composer. He studied composition with James Iliff at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1966 to 1970, and then with Ingvar Lidholm in Stockholm in 1971. His opera "Cullercoats Tommy," featuring a libretto by Michael Wilcox, premiered with the Northern Sinfonia and Northern Stage in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1993. He received a British Composers' Award in 2003. In 2004, he received a Creative Scotland Award to create the work Defying Fate. He produced the finale for the 2006 St Magnus Festival, Ring of Strings. McGuire plays the flute.

Charles Lloyd was born March 15, 1938, and is an American jazz musician. He primarily plays tenor saxophone and flute but has recorded on other reed instruments like the alto saxophone and the Hungarian tárogató. Since 2007, Lloyd's band includes pianist Jason Moran, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland.

Paul Horn (March 17, 1930 – June 29, 2014) was an American flautist, saxophonist, composer, and producer. He pioneered world and new age music with his 1969 album, Inside.

Aurèle Nicolet is a Swiss flautist. He is considered one of the world's best flute players of the late twentieth century and has performed in many international concerts. Composers like Toru Takemitsu, György Ligeti, Krzysztof Meyer, or Edison Denisov wrote music for him. His pupils include Emmanuel Pahud, Carlos Bruneel, Michael Faust, Pedro Eustache, Thierry Fischer, Irena Grafenauer, Huáscar Barradas, Kristiyan Koev, Jadwiga Kotnowska, Robert Langevin, Marina Piccinini, Kaspar Zehnder, and Ariel Zuckermann.

Michael Ryan Flatley was born July 16, 1958, and is an Irish-American former dancer, choreographer, and musician. He gained international fame through Irish dance shows like Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, and Celtic Tiger Live. His shows have reached over 60 million people in 60 countries and grossed more than $1 billion. Flatley reinvented traditional Irish dance by adding new rhythms, syncopation, and upper body movements previously absent from the dance. He holds Guinness World Records for tap dancing 35 times per second.

Ana Caram is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, and flutist, known for her bossa nova music. She was born in São Paulo to a musically expressive family. She graduated from São Paulo University with degrees in musical composition and conducting. As a protégé of Antonio Carlos Jobim, the primary developer of the bossa nova style, Caram created a blend of Brazilian Bossa nova and American Jazz.

Sir James Galway, born December 8, 1939, is an Irish virtuoso flute player from Belfast. He is nicknamed "The Man with the Golden Flute." He built an international career as a solo flute player. In 2005, he received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the Classic Brit Awards.

Peter Gabriel is an acclaimed British singer-songwriter recognized for his innovative approach to music and video production. Born in Chobham, Surrey, England, in 1950, Gabriel was the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. He co-founded the group in 1967. His stage presence and vocal abilities influenced the band's early success. In 1975, Gabriel left Genesis to pursue a solo career, resulting in a series of groundbreaking releases.

Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal (January 7, 1922 – May 20, 2000) was a French flautist. He is credited with returning popularity to the flute as a solo classical instrument, a status it had not held since the eighteenth century.

Coppola studied under Arturo Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. He scored several films directed by his son Francis, including "The Godfather, Part II" (1974), "Apocalypse Now" (1979), and "Gardens of Stone" (1987). Coppola also created a new score in 1981 for the restored version of Abel Gance's "Napoleon" (1927), presented by Francis.

Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1 July 1938) is an Indian music director and classical flutist, who plays the bansuri, an Indian bamboo flute, in the Hindustani classical tradition.

Yusef Abdul Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston; October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and prominent figure among the Ahmadiyya Community in America. Although Lateef's main instruments were the tenor saxophone and flute, he also played oboe and bassoon, both rare in jazz, and also used a number of non-western instruments such as the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, xun, arghul and koto. He is known for having been an innovator in the blending of jazz with "Eastern" music. Peter Keepnews, in his New York Times obituary of Lateef, wrote that

Andrew Latimer (born 17 May 1949, Guildford, Surrey, England) is an English musician and composer who is a founding member of the progressive rock band Camel. Best known as a guitarist and singer, Latimer is a flautist and keyboardist as well.Latimer's most common guitar of choice is a Gibson Les Paul, but he is also known for playing Fender Stratocasters and other guitars. From the 1990s onward, he also played a Burny Super Grade, an 80s copy of the Gibson Les Paul Model. The amplifiers he uses range from Fender, Vox, and Marshall. Along with partner Susan Hoover, Latimer relocated to America

Samuel Carthorne Rivers (September 25, 1923 – December 26, 2011) was an American jazz musician and composer. He performed on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano. Active in jazz since the early 1950s, he earned wider attention during the mid-1960s spread of free jazz. With a thorough command of music theory, orchestration and composition, Rivers was an influential and prominent artist in jazz music.

Czesław Niemen (Polish pronunciation: [t͡ʂɛswaf ɲemɛn]; February 16, 1939 – January 17, 2004), born Czesław Juliusz Wydrzycki, and often credited as just Niemen, was one of the most important and original Polish singer-songwriters and rock balladeers of the last quarter-century, singing mainly in Polish.

Bill Douglass is a bassist and flutist.

Mindi Abair is an American saxophonist, vocalist, author, and National Trustee for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization that puts on the Grammy Awards show. Her solo career has produced ten No. 1 radio singles, two No. 1 Billboard Jazz CDs, and four more solo CDs that have landed No. 5 and above on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Charts. She was the featured saxophonist for the 2011 and 2012 seasons of American Idol, and performed with the rock band Aerosmith. Abair's recordings have twice been nominated for Grammy Awards.

Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952) is an American jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. He has earned a Grammy Award and several mentions on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls. He is married to jazz singer Judi Silvano with whom he records and performs. Lovano was a longtime member of a trio led by drummer Paul Motian.

Marty Ehrlich (born May 31, 1955) is a multi-instrumentalist (saxophones, clarinets, flutes) and is considered one of the leading figures in avant-garde jazz.

Ashleigh Ball is an actress who appeared in "Dinotrux," "Beat Bugs," and "Sonic Prime."

Prolific English composer whose film work began in documentaries in 1936. Alwyn went on to score over 100 films including the Carol Reed classics "Odd Man Out" (1947) and "The Fallen Idol" (1948). He was also a noted painter and author.

David Conley may refer to: David Conley (musician) (born 1953), American jazz flute player, songwriter and producer David Conley, Jr., contestant from The Amazing Race David Conley (media scholar) (born 1951), American-Australian media scholar David Conley (politician), American politician (U.S. Greens)

Gregory Norman Ham (27 September 1953 – 19 April 2012) was an Australian musician, songwriter, and actor, best known as a member of the 1980s band Men at Work. He played saxophone, flute, organ, piano, and synthesizer.

Kenny Garrett (born October 9, 1960) is a Grammy Award-winning American post-bop jazz saxophonist and flautist who gained recognition in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and of Miles Davis's band. Since then, he has pursued a solo career.

Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a Scottish-born musician, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as the lead vocalist, flautist and acoustic guitarist of British rock band Jethro Tull. Anderson plays several other musical instruments, including keyboards, bass guitar, bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone, harmonica, and a variety of whistles. His solo work began with the 1983 album Walk into Light, and since then he has released another five works, including the sequel to the Jethro Tull album Thick as a Brick (1972) in 2012, entitled Thick as a Brick 2.

James Carter (born January 3, 1969) is an American jazz musician. He is the cousin of jazz violinist Regina Carter.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk (August 7, 1935 – December 5, 1977) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute, and many other instruments. He was renowned for his onstage vitality, during which virtuoso improvisation was accompanied by comic banter, political ranting, and the ability to play several instruments simultaneously.

Thijs van Leer (pronounced: /tɛis vɑn leːr/; born 31 March 1948) is a Dutch musician, singer, songwriter, composer and producer, best known as the founding member of the rock band Focus as its primary vocalist, keyboardist, and flautist. Born and raised in Amsterdam among a musical family, van Leer took up the piano and flute as a child and pursued them at university and music academies. From 1967 to 1969, van Leer performed in a theatre cabaret act headed by Ramses Shaffy as his backing vocalist and musician, recorded singles as a solo artist, and produced, arranged, and conducted music for B

Alice Nellis (born 3 January 1971 in České Budějovice) is a Czech filmmaker. Nellis first worked as a flautist before studying English literature and American literature. She worked temporarily as a web designer for the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a teacher, actress, translator and was filming short films and TV documentaries. Her first feature film (directed and scripted) Eeny meeny (2000) won the screenplay award of the FAMU Festival. Her 2002 film Some Secrets won Czech Lions for best screenplay and the critics award.

Franciscus ("Frans") Jozef Brüggen (30 October 1934 – 13 August 2014) was a Dutch conductor, recorder player and baroque flautist.

William Marcel "Buddy" Collette (August 6, 1921 – September 19, 2010) was an American jazz flutist, saxophonist, and clarinetist. He was a founding member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet.

Frankie Kennedy (30 September 1955 – 19 September 1994) was a flute and tin whistle player born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was also the co-founder of the band Altan, formed with his wife Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh. The popular Frankie Kennedy Winter Music School was founded in 1994 in his honour.

Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank, Jr. (May 27, 1926 – April 2, 2009) was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He became prominent in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute with Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra. During that decade, he worked various small jazz combos. Shank spent the 1960s as a first-call studio musician in Hollywood. In the 1970s and 1980s, he performed regularly with the L. A. Four. Shank. He abandoned the flute to focus exclusively on playing jazz alto saxophone. He also recorded on tenor and baritone sax.

Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (29 September 1674 – 16 July 1763), also known as Jacques Martin or Jacques Hotteterre, was a French composer and flautist who was the most celebrated of a family of wind instrument makers and wind performers.

Andrew Woolfolk was a member of the musical group, Earth, Wind Fire.

Lewis Barry Tabackin (born March 26, 1940) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and flutist. He is married to pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi with whom he has co-led large ensembles since the 1970s.

Julie Fowlis (born 20 June 1978) is a Scottish folk singer and multi-instrumentalist who sings primarily in Scottish Gaelic.

David Peter Valentin (April 29, 1952 – March 8, 2017) was an American Latin jazz flautist.

Derek Charke (born 1974) is a Canadian classical composer and flutist.

Øystein Sevåg (born March 19, 1957) is a Norwegian classical musician.

Néstor Torres is a jazz flautist born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, in 1957. He took flute lessons at age 12 and began formal studies at the Escuela Libre de Música, eventually attending Puerto Rico’s Inter-American University. At 18, he moved to New York with his family. Torres went on to study both jazz and classical music at the Mannes College of Music in New York and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, among other places. Torres is also a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism and a longtime member of the Buddhist association Soka Gakkai International.In 2007, Torres played at the Worl

George Rufus Adams (April 29, 1940 Covington, Georgia – November 14, 1992 New York City) was an American jazz musician who played tenor saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. He is best known for his work with Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Roy Haynes and in the quartet he co-led with pianist Don Pullen, featuring bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Dannie Richmond. He was also known for his idiosyncratic singing.

Barbara Ann "Bobbi" Humphrey (born April 25, 1950) is an American jazz flutist and singer who plays fusion, jazz-funk, and soul-jazz. She recorded twelve albums and founded the jazz label Paradise Sounds Records. In 1971, she was the first female instrumentalist signed by Blue Note.

Andrew (Andy) Findon is an English woodwind player. He was educated at Harrow County School and The Royal College of Music. He has been baritone saxophone and flute player in the Michael Nyman Band since 1980, and is also a member of The Home Service and Acoustic Earth. He is a Pearl Flutes International Artist and endorsee of Forestone reeds. He is the owner of the platinum flute built by Charles Morley in 1950 for Geoffrey Gilbert. Apart from appearances on hundreds of other people's albums as a session player, he has written and recorded for EMI’s KPM, Made Up Music, and Inspired Music libr