Walfrid Kujala

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Walfrid KujalaBiography

Walfrid Kujala is emeritus professor of flute at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music. He was a member of the Chicago Symphony for 47 years, originally as assistant principal flute, then becoming principal piccolo. He was also principal flute of the Grant Park Orchestra from 1955 to 1960. Previously he had been a member of the Rochester Philharmonic (1948-54) and taught at the Eastman School of Music where he received his BM and MM degrees as a student of Joseph Mariano.

He has been a soloist with the Chicago Symphony under the batons of Sir Georg Solti, Fritz Reiner, Antonio Janigro, Seiji Ozawa and Lawrence Foster. In 1988, with the Chicago Symphony under Sir Georg Solti, he gave the world premiere of Gunther Schuller's Flute Concerto, commissioned as a birthday present by his students and colleagues. He has since performed the concerto with the Rochester Philharmonic under Robert Spano, the Spokane Symphony under Gunther Schuller's direction, and the Northwestern University Symphony under Victor Yampolsky.

Mr.Kujala also gave the USA premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara's Flute Concerto under Kurt Redel at the National Flute Association convention in Minneapolis in 1990. A past president of the NFA, Kujala received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. He is a contributing editor of Flute Talk and the author of the following books: The Flutist's Progress; Orchestral Techniques for Flute and Piccolo, An Audition Guide; The Flutist's Vade Mecum of Scales, Arpeggios,Trills and Fingering Technique; and The Articulate Flutist: Rhythms, Groupings, Turns and Trills.

  

Piccolo Class

We will cover all of the following excerpts from the official text for this class: Orchestral Excerpts for Piccolo with Piano Accompaniment, Selected and Annotated by Jack Wellbaum, published by Theodore Presser Co. This publication can be purchased from Flute World or Carolyn Nussbaum.

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