RACHEL STORNANT, Flute

While still a student at the Peabody Conservatory, RACHEL STORNANT won her first professional audition, winning a one-year position as Principal Flute with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra for the 1999-2000 season. She performed with the Jerusalem International Symphony in Israel for the 2000-2001 festival season, as Co-Principal Flute and Solo Piccolo of the Orquesta Sinfonica in Mexico 2003 to 2005, and then ventured to Europe to serve as Principal Flutist with the Orquestra Do Norte in Portugal until fall of 2006.

Rachel Stornant was recently awarded the Piccolo Position with Oregon's Eugene Symphony Orchestra for the 2007-2008 season.

Recent and upcoming performances as an extra player include the Delaware Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presentation of the "Salute to Vienna" concerts, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Oregon Coast Music Festival Orchestra, The Key West Symphony, The Columbia Symphony, and the Santa Cruz Ballet.

As a teenager, Miss Stornant was awarded the William D. Dahling full tuition scholarship to attend the Institute of Music and Dance at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. She performed for three years with the Detroit Symphony CIVIC orchestra.

As first prize winner in many competitions, among them the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra and Wayne State University Concerto Competitions, the Vivace Music Young Artists competition and the Mu Phi Epsilon competition, Miss Stornant has had the opportunity to perform Concerti by Nielsen, Ibert, C.P.E. Bach, Mercadente, Kabalevsky and Mozart in addition to other works by Boehm, Chaminade and Griffes.

Rachel received her bachelor's degree in flute performance under the tutelage of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Principal Flutist Ervin Monroe and with Detroit Symphony Piccoloist and Flutist Jeff Zook. Graduate studies were with Mark Sparks (Principal Flute of the Saint Louis Symphony, Formerly with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and with Laura Gilbert of the Aureole Trio in New York. Other influential teachers include Clement Barone.

Masterclass performances have been with James Galway, Michel Debost, Julius Baker, Ervin Monroe, Jeff Zook, Sharon Sparrow and is an alumni of the Orchestral Flute Institute in 1999.

As a member of Analog Arts Ensemble, Rachel was a featured performer at the 2006 ArtsAHA Festival, in addition to presenting a masterclass with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Flutist Marcia Kamper at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. Rachel Stornant performs on a 9k Muramatsu Flute and a Kingwood Powell piccolo with an Eldred Spell headjoint. --