Alexa Still —
descriptor

Alexa Still, dazzling international flautist has a gorgeous sound, …a limitless technique and combines this with the musical intelligence to give utterly ravishing performances.

I'm a flutist; I love performing. I also find teaching richly rewarding. I am based in Sydney at the Conservatorium of Music and I travel internationally for performances.

I had the great pleasure of performing Mozart's D major Quartet with one of the worlds' finest string quartets— Takacs. Intensely committed musicians, they swept me along as if I were dancing with just one, yet I had unlimited freedom to take the music where I wanted. Every nano-second lived.

Reviews — Alexa Still

A the National Flute Association's 2006 convention in Pittsburgh, USA
Alexa Still gave a recital, beginning with one of my favourite pieces, Achat Sha'alti by Paul Schoenfeld. Everything Alexa Still plays is done with subtlety and thoughtfulness. She performed Robert Dick's Fish are Jumping, a blues piece, by memory which is a fun, blues piece, and at the end, the audience went Yeah! Aaron Jay Kernis' Air for flute and piano, an NFA première, had long, flowing lines requiring astounding breath and pitch control, with dynamics to ppp. Still played its simple phrases with deep musicality; it was a beautiful piece. I also greatly enjoyed Still's performance of Katherine Hoover's world première piece, To Greet the Sun. Alexa received a standing ovation for her performance. Helen Spielman, www.nfaonline.org



Alexa Still convinced us again that she is a national treasure….Sir Selwyn Cushing, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Concert Season Program

CDs featuring Alexa Still's work

Alexa is known internationally for her many recordings on the Koch International Classics label.

She has been described as:

• impeccable in technique and taste, seductive in phrasing (Stephensen Classical CD Guide).
• Still plays … so convincingly I cannot separate her from the music (American Record Guide),
• whatever she plays sounds musical in every turn of the phrase (Gramophone),
• a stunning showcase for the astonishing Alexa Still (Fanfare).

Carl Vine: Sonata for Flute

Alexa Still, flute
Stephen Gosling, piano
Carl Vine, composer
Paul Schoenfield, Joseph Schwantner, Anne Boyd, Ian Clarke, Paul Ben-Haim, Dan Welcher, Glen Cortese, Sofia Gubaidulina

KIC-CD7658; released January 2009.

Purchase the CD, listen to excerpts or buy tracks at Amazon.com

John Corigliano: Pied Piper Fantasy Katherine Hoover Medieval Suite, Chen-Yi: Golden Flute

Alexa Still, flute
conductor James Sedares
the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

KIC-CD-7566 ; Released September 2004

Lowell Liebermann Complete Chamber Music for Flute

Five Pieces from Album for the Young Op.43,
Sonata for flute and Guitar Op 25,
Eight Pieces for solo flute Op. 59,
Sonata for flute and harp Op. 56,
Soliloquy for solo flute Op. 44,
Sonata for flute and piano Op. 23,
A Poet to His Beloved Op. 40

Alexa Still, flute
pianist David Korevaar
guitarist Franco Platino
haprist Victoira Drake
tenor Curt Peterson,
violinists Yumi Hwang and Claude Sim
violist Erika Eckert
cellist Judith Glyde.

3-7549-2 HI ; Released July 2003

Music for flute by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett

Summer Music, Sonatina, Impromptu, Winter Music, Memento

Alexa Still, flute
New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, conductor James Sedares and pianist Susan DeWitt Smith,

3-7505-2HI; released Fall 2000

Viennese Guitar, a collection of chamber music

Schubert: Quartet, Beethoven: Serenade (arr.), and Kreisler: Trio

Alexa Still, flute
JoAnn Faletta, guitar
Robert Alemany-clarinet
Paul Neubauer-viola,
Ron Thomas, cello,

3-7404-2H1 ; released Fall 1998

Music by Charles Koechlin

Les Chants de Nectaire for unaccompanied flute,

Alexa Still, flute

3-7394-2 ; released 1997

Music by Jerome Moross: Concerto for flute and strings

Alexa Still, flute
New Zealand Chamber Orchestra

3-7367-2H1; released 1996

Concerto for flute and orchestra

Bloch Two Last Poems ...Maybe

Alexa Still, flute

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and conductor James Sedares

3-7232-2H1; released 1994

Summerland

Music for flute, piano, string quartet and double bass by African-American American composer William Grant Still,

Alexa Still, flute
Susan De Witt Smith
the New Zealand String Quartet
Michael Steer (double bass)

3-7192-2H1; released 1994

A collection of concertos by english composers

Jacob: Concerto, Arnold: Concerto No.2, Musgrave: Orfeo II

Alexa Still, flute
New Zealand Chamber Orchestra
Nicholas Braithwaite

3-7140-2H1; released 1993

A collection of American music for flute and piano

Barber: Canzone, Copland: Vocalise, Burtin: Sonatina, Porter: Blues Lontains, Copland: Duo, Rochberg: Between Two Worlds, Muczynski: Sonata, Bloch: Two Last Poems(...maybe)

Alexa Still, flute
pianist Susan De Witt Smith

3-7144-2H1; released 1993

A collection of lesser known flute concertos

Hanson: Serenade, Griffes: Poem, Hovhaness: Elibris Concerto, Bloch: Suite Modale, Kennan: Night Soliloquy, Foote: Night Piece, Arnold: Concerto No.1

Alexa Still, flute
New Zealand Chamber Orchestra
conductor Nicholas Braithwaite

3-7063-2H1; released 1991

Music by Holst

: A Fugal Concerto for flute, oboe and String Orchestra

Alexa Still, flute
New Zealand Chamber Orchestra
Nicholas Braithwaite

3-7058-2 ; released 1991

Kiwi flute

New Zealand flute concertos by Anthony Ritchie, John Ritchie, David Hamilton, Chloe Moon

Alexa Still
NZSO
conductor James Sedares

Currently out of print, Òauthorized copies available from SOUNZ

3-7345-2-H1; released 1997

Compilation Koch compact discs including selections:

Music of William Grant Still
Quit Dat Foolnish and Summerland

Aexa Still
Susan De Witt Smith
Berlin Sinfoniker
conductor Isaiah Jackson

3-7154-2H1

Collection: Flute Salad of six Koch label flutists
Kennan: Night Soliloquy, Jacob: Poco adagio, from concerto, W.G. Still: Pastorella, Burton: Sonatina
3-7602-2

Collection: Sir Malcolm Arnold; Arnold: Flute concertos 1 and 2
3-7607-2

Collection: Aaron Copland; Copland:Vocalise
3-7608-2

Collection: Samuel Barber; Barber: Canzone
3-7361-2

Collection: American Dreams; Still: Here's One
3-7346-2

Collection: Night Piece — Quiet Classics; Foote: Night Piece, Kennan: Night Soliloquy
3-7611-2

Collection: Visions — Alan Hovhaness; Hovhaness: Elibris concerto
3-7311-2

A history of Music in Western Culture

compiled by Mark Evan Bonds

disc 14, Thea Musgrave: Orfeo
Alexa Still
with New Zealand Chamber Orchestra

Pearson Prentice Hall / Naxos, released 2006

Sound Barrier, Music of New Zealand

Disk one, Gillian Whitehead: Hine Raukatauri
Alexa Still
Richard Nunns

New Zealand Geographic, released February 2007

Seaswell

Composition Four for Flute and Electronic Tape by John Rimmer

Alexa Still
John Rimmer

Manu is a small independent record Company based in New Zealand, founded by composers with the intention of making New Zealand Music more available. Costs of recordings are subsidized by the New Zealand Composer's Association. I donated my services for this recording. Mr Rimmer was one of my professors. Manu 1406

Gareth Farr: Chamber Music

Cadenza and Kembang Suling

Trust Records, MMT2020 1997

Uprite — Demo Vol. 2

Alexa Still, flute
David Korevaar, piano
, Kevin Harbison, recording engineer

This is a demonstration recording made for the Drelinger Headjoint Company to demonstrate the newly developed "UpRite "headjoint. This disc is being given away by that company to flutists internationally.

Home Cooked CD.com Released in 2003

Radio New Zealand

Agreement for broadcasting in perpetuity of recordings of live concerts and studio recordings:

• Bach: Sonata in E BWV 1035,
• Grenfell: Four Pooh Stories,
• Messiaen: Le Merle Noir,
• Poulenc: Sonata,
• Schubert: Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Trockne Blumen,
• Borne: Carmen Fantasie,
• Beethoven: Serenade,
• Bach: Partita in A minor

Biography — Alexa Still

I began flute at the age of 8 in Auckland New Zealand, having played recorder since I was four. I passed LTCL at 14, started playing professionally in orchestral work at 16 and teaching in schools at 17. I did a Bachelors degree in Flute at Auckland University (and FTCL in my first year), and both Masters and a Doctorate at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1983-87). While a student in New York, I won numerous awards including New York Flute Club Young Artist Competition Winner, East and West Artists New York Debut Winner, both Masters and Doctoral Concerto Competitions of the State University of New York.

I won the position of Principal Flute with the New Zealand Symphony in 1987 and then a Churchill Fellowship and a Fulbright Cultural grant in 1995. My first CD was released in 1990. I took up the position of Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1998, I was awarded full tenure during my third year rather than the usual seventh year.

I was nominated Flutelist Member of the Millennium in 2000, and awarded an endowed chair at the University of Colorado in 2004. In 2004 I also played the summer season as guest principal flute of the Saint Louis Symphony. In 2003 I was program chair for the National Flute Association's Convention in Las Vegas, attended by over 3000 flutists.

I was headhunted for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2005, becoming Head of Flute in 2006. I am currently finishing a term as elected Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Flute Association.

I am best known for my recording of lesser known 20th century repertoire, and have performed many premieres, but I routinely perform music from all eras on western flutes, and also play tin whistle and Taongo Puoro (Maori flutes).