Laurel Swinden

As a performer, pedagogue and scholar, I bring both practical experience and current research to the Flute studio at Laurier. I perform as a soloist, orchestral flutist and chamber music artist. I have taught and performed as an invited artist at festivals in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, China, Puerto Rico, the United States and across Canada. Recent concertos performed include Reinecke’s Concerto, Op. 283 and Canadian composer Jean Coulthard’s Music on a Quiet Song.

My flutist colleagues in the NAFTA flute duo and PanAmerican Flute Trio and I have a mission to bring attention to works by underrepresented composers and expand and diversify the flute chamber music repertoire. I’m active with commissioning new works for flute through the Flute New Music Consortium.

In addition to teaching flute and flute techniques at Laurier, I have over 30 years of university teaching experience, which includes positions teaching flute, chamber music, flute ensemble, flute techniques, music history and music appreciation at the University of Nebraska Omaha, University of Toronto, Western University, McMaster University, University of Windsor, University of Guelph and the University of Mississippi. I’m a Winds, Brass and Percussion Examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music and adjudicate for regional, national and international music festivals. I’ve taught flute students from beginner through graduate university performance majors, age 4 through 74. I have certification as a Suzuki flute teacher and Orff Level 1 educator. I founded Flute Boost, an internationally attended intensive training week for high school flutists.

I have released two CDs of flute music: Celebrating Women! (2012) and Celebrating Canadian Women! (2017) that I was honoured to record with pianist Stephanie Mara. These were generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Waterloo Regional Arts Council. I’ve recorded premieres of new Canadian works on the Scarborough Philharmonic’s CD, Canadian Panorama (2017) funded by FACTOR. I was an artistic advisor for Flute Music by Women Composers: An International Online Festival (2022), a collaborative project with the SPO, Flute 360 Podcast and Tempere Flute Festival Finland. I contributed recordings of six works (including two world premieres) by Canadian composers to the playlist for this online festival.

My orchestral performing schedule includes concerts as Principal Flute of the Stratford Symphony Orchestra, Assistant Principal Flute/Piccolo of the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra and freelance work with orchestras all over Ontario. I have performed with the Memphis Symphony, New World Symphony, Symphony of the Americas, Kingston Symphony, Windsor Symphony, London Sinfonia, Mississippi Symphony, Tupelo Symphony and others.

I earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Flute Performance from the University of Toronto, where I studied with Nora Shulman, Principal Flute emeritus of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I also studied traverso with Alison Melville and at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. My dissertation focused on eighteenth-century Scottish music for flute. My training also includes Professional Performance Studies at the Harid Conservatory (Lynn University),  Master of Music Performance and Bachelor of Music Performance degrees, performance studies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and a graduate Diploma in Arts Management.

I enjoy playing traditional Irish and Scottish on my 8-keyed wooden flute made by Rod Cameron. As a foster family puppy raiser for the Lions Foundation Dog Guides of Canada, I often have a pocket full of dog treats to share.